IBM 20th Global C-Suite Study - Build Your Trust Advantage

Build Your
Trust Advantage
Global C-suite Study
20th Edition
Leadership in the era of
data and AI everywhere

This report is IBM’s fourth Global C-suite Study and
the 20th Edition in the ongoing IBM CxO Study series
developed by the IBM Institute for Business Value (IBV).
We have now collected data and insights from more than
50,000 interviews dating back to 2003. This report was
authored in collaboration with leading academics,
futurists, and technology visionaries. In this report,
we present our key findings of CxO insights, experiences,
and sentiments based on analysis as described in the
research methodology on page 44.

Build Your Trust Advantage
Our latest study draws on input from
13,484 respondents across 6 C-suite
roles, 20 industries, and 98 countries.
Global C-suite Study
20th Edition
Leadership in the era of data and AI everywhere
3,755 North America
933 Latin America
3,363 Europe
1,910 Greater China
858 Japan
1,750 Asia Pacific
915 Middle East and Africa
2,131
Chief
Executive
Officers
2,105
Chief
Financial
Officers
2,118
Chief
Human
Resources
Officers
2,924
Chief
Information
Officers
2,107
Chief
Marketing
Officers
2,099
Chief
Operations
Officers
Build Your Trust Advantage | 1

Table of contents
Executive summary 3
Introduction 4
Chapter 1 Customers: How to win in the trust economy 8
Action guide 19
Chapter 2 Enterprises: How to build the human-tech partnership 20
Action guide 31
Chapter 3 Ecosystems: How to share data in the platform era 32
Action guide 41
Conclusion: Return on trust 42
Acknowledgments 43
Related IBV studies 43
Research methodology 44
Notes and sources 45
2 | Global C-suite Study

Executive summary
More than 13,000 C-suite executives worldwide
participated in this, the 20th edition of our C-suite
Study. We asked executives about their plans to extract
value from data and turn it into differentiating
advantage and their progress in these pursuits. To
identify the leaders, we classified every organization
into one of four distinct stages on the data journey.
The most advanced, the Torchbearers, are an elite
group, comprising 9 percent of the total respondents.
The Torchbearers outperform their peers in revenue
growth and profitability. They also outshine others
in innovation and managing change.
We learned that data-driven leadership is determined
by the levels of trust an organization can create—among
its customers, the people inside the enterprise, and the
partners across its ecosystem.
Customers: The trust economy
Customer trust has become the defining issue for
leading organizations, reshaping their offerings and
even their business models. Eight in ten Torchbearers
tell us they have turned to data to strengthen the
trust they earn from customers. What’s more, the
Torchbearers consider their capacity to respect their
customers’ data privacy a core competitive advantage.
The race is on to discover precisely where an organiza-
tion’s customers draw the line on privacy and what they
consider a fair tradeoff for their data. The prize for
those who get there first is high-trust business models
that differentiate them from their competitors.
All organizations face a future in which changing
customer sentiment and new regulations could
severely constrain their access to, and use of, prized
personal data. This is as true for consumer data as it
is for business partner data. Leading organizations
recognize what’s required—new approaches to data
collection and protection, data sharing, and customer
relationships. Three principles—transparency,
reciprocity, and authenticity—guide their handling
of data and how they engage their customers and
business partners.
Enterprises: The human-tech partnership
The Torchbearers have achieved what others have not.
They’ve inculcated a culture of data believers. Eight in
ten Torchbearers say the executives in their C-suite rely
heavily on data to improve the quality and speed of the
decisions they make. At the same time, they’re fully
focused on empowering all of their employees, not just
their data scientists, to uncover insights from data.
Leading organizations are liberating their data, allowing
it to circulate widely, without sacrificing their responsi-
bility to secure permissions and safeguard it.
Supported by their data-hungry culture, the
Torchbearers have raised artificial intelligence (AI)
to the top of their agenda. Seven in ten expect to
make significant investments in AI, which can include
machine learning, in the next few years. They’re
deploying AI to inform better decisions, infuse
workflows with intelligence, and humanize the customer
experience. They’re moving AI from online to the front
lines, into the hands of employees who interact with
customers and business buyers. Torchbearers
understand that as AI permeates their enterprise, the
need for trust in data—and in algorithms—soars to new
heights. In turn, robust enterprise-wide governance
becomes a board-level issue.
Ecosystems: The platform era
For most organizations, data sharing across partner
networks—a function of mutual trust—continues
to be a core challenge. However, the implications
for an organization’s future are new. For platform
business model participants, learning quickly and
continuously is a do-or-die proposition and a function
of data sharing. New platform business models could
rise or founder on the shoals of trust.
Data shared among organizations in an ecosystem
is already creating new and exponential value.
But deciding what data to share for win-win proposi-
tions—and what data to maintain as a proprietary
advantage—is one of the most difficult decisions
organizations have to make. Torchbearers are
ahead of the others: six in ten are actively sharing
data across their partner networks. Likewise, six
in ten Torchbearers are pursuing a strategy to monetize
their data. With a monetization roadmap in place,
organizations can better determine what data they
should share and what they should keep close.
The Torchbearers stand apart from others in their
ability to unite trust and data to surge ahead in their
digital transformation. In each chapter, we’ve
included recommendations, based on analysis of
comparative data and in-depth interviews with
Torchbearers, for how others can advance their
own journeys.

For this study, we spoke with more than
13,000 C-suite executives worldwide about
data, the value they derive from it, and what
it takes to lead in a world awash with data.
We learned that data has become inextricably
entwined with trust. Specifically, the ongoing
and widespread erosion of customer trust,
including B2B buyers, has changed what
organizations can—and should—do with data.
It changes the value equation. Where data
alone was once an organization’s unparal-
leled asset, it must now factor in trust.
Data matters. But trust determines its value.
Introduction

The trust customers once gave, almost blindly, to
brands and institutions has been slipping away for
some time now. Likewise, data sharing among organi-
zations has become constrained by a mutual lack of
trust. It may even jeopardize the extraordinary
revenues that organizations expect to gain on new
business platforms. Complicating matters, the promise
of AI depends on even deeper levels of trust—
in the AI models themselves and the revelations
they produce.
Our observation? Trust has passed its tipping point.
How organizations utilize, safeguard, and share data
with their customers and partners can create an
extraordinary advantage. But achieving it will first
require rebuilding trust—trust from customers, trust
from within the enterprise about its own data, and trust
across the ecosystems in which organizations operate.
An organization’s ability to earn a trust advantage
depends on at least two factors: one, how good it is at
creating trust in data and, two, how well it engenders
trust from data. Once the trust advantage is
established, new possibilities for innovation and
revenues emerge.
In this study, we explore the interplay between
trust and data in three areas:
Customers: How to win in the trust economy
Customer trust once endowed in brands is now
contingent on data, which becomes the new proxy
for trust. How organizations transparently share data
about their offerings, are accountable for the personal
data they collect, and use that data to their customers’
benefit determines their market position. Organizations
that lack customer trust—cut off from prized personal
data—could find themselves slipping further behind.
Enterprises: How to build the human-tech
partnership
Data, coupled with advanced analytics and AI,
including machine learning, can inform superior
enterprise decisions and optimize and automate
processes—but only if organizations can deeply trust
their data. To do so, organizations are learning to
master the quality of data, mitigate algorithmic bias,
and serve up answers with evidence.
But first, they must create a culture of data believers,
built from the ground up. That requires both putting
easy-to-use tools in employees’ hands so anyone can
make discoveries from data, and moving AI from online
to the front line to humanize each customer experience.
Ecosystems: How to share data in the platform era
Executives recognize that when data is shared
among organizations, it can grow immensely in value.
Business platforms, where data circulates freely
among multiple parties, are earning outsized returns.
But paradoxically, proprietary data can also be an
organization’s core advantage.
Organizations will need to learn when and how to
share data widely and when to keep it close. This may
well be the most complex and sophisticated strategic
challenge that business leaders face as the data
economy grows.
How did we reach this conclusion? We classified every
company into one of four distinct stages on the journey
to leading with data. We call them, starting with the
most advanced: Torchbearers, Explorers, Builders,
and Aspirationals (see Figure 1).

The four stages of data leadership
We classified every participant into one of four stages.
The horizontal axis measures qualitative readiness:
the extent to which data and business strategy are
integrated, with a C-suite that recognizes data as a
strategic asset and with an enterprise-wide data culture.
The vertical axis measures quantitative aspects, including
the abilities to: create value from data; access, extract,
and link data together; and create insights from that data
(see page 44 for research methodology details).
Torchbearers represent a unique group that consists
of just 9 percent of surveyed organizations. They have
fused data strategy to business strategy, with trust as
the plumb line. Operating in a data-rich culture, they
generate higher revenue growth and profitability than
their peers.
Explorers are experimenting with ways to integrate
their business and data strategies, as well as with
new ways to extract value from data. They don’t
consistently realize its highest possible value but see
the trust economy as a path to achieving outstanding
mutual benefit.
Builders are making progress in aligning their business
and data strategies and growing a data culture. They are
applying data to objectives but are not yet achieving
their expected returns. They recognize that trust needs
to be high on the C-suite agenda and are working
toward their goals.
Aspirationals are beginning to integrate enterprise-
wide business and data strategies and do not have a
data-driven culture in place. They have had only limited
success in extracting value from data and cementing
trust as a foundation.
100%
50%
0%
0% 50% 100%
Creating value from data
High
Low
High
Aspirationals
Builders
Explorers
Torchbearers
9%
21%
46%
25%
Integrating business and data strategy
Torchbearers have established a new path to value, by
integrating data into their strategy, operations, and culture
Figure 1
The data advantage
High value from
data and high
integration
Either high value
from data or
high integration
Medium value
from data and
low integration
Low value from
data and low
integration

Surging ahead of the others are the Torchbearers,
organizations that have already proven they can
create extraordinary value from data, leverage trust to
their advantage, and consistently outperform others in
many areas (see Figure 2). The Torchbearers have
fused their data strategy to their business strategy.
Moreover, they have put customer trust center stage.
However you measure it, the Torchbearers have
achieved superior results: seven in ten Torchbearers
outperform their peers financially. Even more—eight
Torchbearers deliver exceptional results, vastly
outpacing the data-nascent Aspirationals
Figure 2
The new digital divide Torchbearers
Aspirationals
Revenue growth outperformance compared to industry peers
Profitability outperformance compared to industry peers
Innovation leadership compared to industry peers
Success at managing change compared to industry peers
165%more
69%*
26%
163%more
71%
27%
208%more
77%
25%
182%more
79%
28%
in ten—Torchbearers lead their industries as innovators
and have a track record of successfully managing the
change that is occurring around them.
Our research analysis focuses on the distinct
differences between the Torchbearers and the
Aspirationals to identify what it takes to win in a world
where a new digital divide is emerging—a world where
trust may determine which side of the divide an organi-
zation lands on.
*Percentage of respondents that meet or exceed the standard.

Chapter 1
Organizations accustomed to scanning
the horizon for the next great disruption
have seen this one coming: the trust
customers once placed in brand names
and institutions is quickly eroding.
Today, customers are less willing to hand
over private information to organizations,
yet they expect every enterprise to
divulge whatever data is captured about
them. In other words, they’re asking
for more privacy while demanding
more transparency from you. Those
enterprises that deftly manage these
shoals reap a trust dividend—which
fuels business advantage.
Customers
How to win in the trust economy

For leading organizations in every industry, trust has
become a central design point, whether that’s how they
access data, evolve their business models, innovate
offerings, or engage customers.
Identified in our study as the Torchbearers, these
leaders:
–
– Pursue ways to create deep and sustainable
customer trust
–
– Surpass their peers in the collection and use of
trustworthy data to change the customer experience
–
– Capitalize on the trust they’ve earned from
customers and the trust they have in their data
to transform their business models.
Step one: The not-so-basics
We are entering a new world, one that creates a data
dilemma. Organizations are prepared to exploit data to
new purpose but are finding that doing so often raises
the bar on the trust that will be required. Think of asking
customers to hand over the electronic keys to their
cars—or even their houses—so that a delivery person
can leave a package there. Or consider a dairy producer
that is asked to trust a “smart” container to
The Torchbearers defy data fears, enhancing the
trust of customers
Figure 3
The trust paradox Torchbearers
Aspirationals
Using data to strengthen customer trust, to a large extent
82%
43%
91%more
autonomously adjust temperatures based on environ-
mental conditions and time at port. Innovations like
these spring from data and algorithms at scale.
All at an astounding pace, our world is being remade
by data and the algorithms that let organizations
automate workflows, personalize interactions, discover
new possibilities, learn, and apply knowledge. New
value materializes—but only if customers can trust it.
It’s becoming almost commonplace for organizations
to ask their customers to trust a bot or an algorithm to
make high-value decisions, such as granting a loan or
personalizing the price on a big-ticket item. For many
organizations, trust in their algorithms has yet to be
earned.
Suspicion about data privacy and algorithm abuse is
actively eroding trust for some enterprises—but not
for all. Trust, in all its forms, has become inextricably
entwined with data and, by extension, AI. Eight in
ten Torchbearers are making the mastery of that
relationship their singular advantage. They have
turned to data to strengthen, to a great extent, the
level of trust their customers have in them. Just four
in ten Aspirationals can say the same (see Figure 3).

To satisfy the modern requirement for trust, leading
organizations are adopting three basic principles as
their guide: transparency, reciprocity, and account-
ability. Each provides assurance to customers but is
more than good marketing. These principles are the
scaffolding that supports the modern enterprise,
remade to propagate trust.
Transparency: Prove it
Transparency, organizations concur, is the first
requirement. Customers demand transparency of
data associated with products and services and, in
the case of personal data, assurances that it’s used in
a fair manner and kept safe. Their purchase decisions
depend on detailed product information: data about
how products are manufactured and under what
conditions, reviews from users and influencers,
accreditations from third parties, and more.
Brands must prove their credentials. Some are turning
to blockchain networks, where organizations can
document the brand promise in detail, whether that
promise is speed of delivery or eco-friendly sourcing
and manufacturing. When making a purchase,
consumers choose brand trust as one of the most
important factors to guide their decision. According to
the 2019 Edelman Trust Barometer, 81 percent of
consumers say they “must be able to trust the brand to
do what is right.” And in that same research, trust in
brands has continued to fall while expectations of
social responsibility are on the rise.1
The erosion of trust isn’t confined to consumers.
B2B organizations are also growing less trustful and
increasingly value transparency. In a recent study,
36 percent of B2B buyers didn’t believe they “got
the full picture” from their vendor during the sales
process.2
The B2B demand for transparency extends
to processes. Partners in a supply chain rely on shared
data to eliminate blind spots and bottlenecks and
advance capabilities such as just-in-time
replenishment.
“Customers expect
personalization,
underpinned by data—
putting things in front of
them that demonstrate
the bank knows them.
However, there remains a
question as to how much
information customers
will share, given the
erosion of trust.”
CEO, Banking, Australia

Transparency constitutes proof that an organization
and its offerings are what the organization claims them
to be. Often, that proof takes the form of customer
reviews or buyer testimonials. “Going forward,” the
CMO of a Canadian retailer notes, “customer opinions
will be the driving factor of demand in our industry.”
Endorsements, coupled with detailed and visible
information about the safety and quality of goods,
go a long way in establishing trust.
The C-suite executives we surveyed spoke about trans-
parency of workflows, trust in automation, and trust
among partners. “Data can help maintain integrity and
trust in the supply chain,” notes the CHRO of a UK
retailer. “Radical transparency can provide actionable
insights.”
Reciprocity: Earn it
Second requirement, reciprocity. C-suite executives
understand that to get access to data, they have to give
something meaningful in return. “We are entering our
consumers’ space,” acknowledges Jacek Olczak, COO
of Philip Morris International in Switzerland. “If we
don’t give them value back, they won’t share data. We
need to offer them a delightful experience every time.”
“The question,” says Geoff Greenberg, CFO of George
& Matilda Eyecare in Australia, “is how do you use your
data to increase your personal interactions with
customers—to become both less intrusive and more
relevant?”
The challenge? Organizations often don’t know what
their customers would consider a fair exchange.
A recent survey conducted by the Advertising Research
Foundation in the US found that “telling people that
sharing their data will allow for a more personalized
experience does not result in a greater willingness to
share data.”3
Another study found that 75 percent of
consumers believe that sharing their data benefits
enterprises more than consumers.4
Moreover, customers have mixed feelings about
the benefits that are gained through technology by
sacrificing privacy. An IBV study found that only three
out of ten people feel strongly that the risks are worth
the rewards.5
“The question for
everyone is, ‘How far
will you need to go to
ensure privacy and
trust?’ Organizations
need to create an
ethical view of how they
will use data and align it
to their brand promise.”
Rima Qureshi,
Chief Strategy Officer,
Verizon, United States

Accountability: Demonstrate it
Third, accountability. Accountability is synonymous
with brand integrity. This covers a broad range of issues
from delivery on customer promises to a commitment
to data security and respect for data privacy.
The average global cost of a data breach is USD 3.9
million, and the long-tail costs can be felt for years
after the incident.6
A clear reality is that the world is
continuing to digitally evolve and is reliant on inter-
changeable data, accessible across multiple platforms
and deployed across an ever-expanding ecosystem of
devices.
To succeed in retaining trust while growing business
or expanding into new markets, executives need to
establish governance and policies to combat cyber risk
and protect customer trust and brand. In short, they
have to embed security in everything.
But security has become something of a tug of war—
a battle between the need to create frictionless
customer experiences and the need to help ensure
strong authentication of transactions. Excessive
caution constrains legitimate activity, impacting the
bottom line and customer engagement. Too little
caution is also costly and not just in a financial sense.
Customers’ trust that an organization will safeguard
their data has become a compelling expectation.
Organizations have to respond appropriately.
The Torchbearers prioritize data privacy as one of
their top competitive advantages, edged out only
by customer relationships. The two are, of course,
intertwined. Fewer Aspirationals look to privacy
as a competitive edge (see Figure 4).
Data privacy joins customers and workforce as
one of the top three competitive advantages
Figure 4
The “P” word
Torchbearers
Aspirationals
13%more
52%
46%
Customer relationships
22%more
45%
37%
5%more
45%
43%
Workforce skills
Data privacy

Data breaches make headlines monthly, if not weekly.
Corporations worry about the hit to their brand and
their future access to data. Just as alarming is the
attitude of consumers who suspect that by sharing
their data, or simply going online, they’re giving up
something of value to them: their privacy. C-suite
executives are concerned, as in the words of Ian Soffe,
CEO of OSS Group in New Zealand, “A consumer
rebellion is emerging against data privacy invasions.”
The cost of data incursions is too high to ignore.
Research on Fortune 500 companies has shown that
just 20 percent of organizations had instituted policies
about data transparency and opt-out control of their
data to customers. When data breaches occurred,
the organizations that didn’t provide transparency or
control had 1.5 X larger drops in their stock prices.7
Combined with the right talent and governance, AI can
help accelerate a shift in cybersecurity, turning what
was primarily a defensive proposition into a proactive
one. In attempting to make such a shift, organizations
should consider three important guidelines:
–
– Security of business platforms will be critical
to trust and their longevity, but companies need to
balance this with frictionless customer and employee
experiences.
–
– Organizations must work to secure both the human
and machine elements along key workflows and
data sources.
–
– The ecosystem of business platforms requires an
open network approach to security across all parties,
driving collaboration and insights at speed.
“One of the key challenges
is maintaining customer
trust in a world where
new data-driven
businesses constantly
emerge. We need to
ensure our customers
know that we treat their
data in a trustworthy way.”
Marcus Claesson,
CIO, Daimler Commercial
Vehicles, Germany

Step two: Control your fate
Organizations reliant on an abundance of data are
now confronting an alarming possibility: its sudden
scarcity. Some executives tell us that new regulations
and changing consumer sentiment are already
constraining their access to, and use of, business
and customer data.
Digital trails are disappearing as customer consent
for cookies is mandated. Personal data already in an
organization’s custody is being purged on demand.
Regulations are restricting the sharing of data among
business partners. In some cases, conglomerates are
finding that they can’t even share data among the
companies they own.
The Torchbearers aren’t daunted. They’re going big
on trust and big on data. Seven in ten Torchbearers tell
us their coffers are already full. They have a treasure
trove of accurate and actionable “360-degree
customer data” on hand. By contrast, just two in ten
Aspirationals have access to actionable customer data
they have faith in, one of the largest gaps between the
two groups across our survey questions (see Figure 5).
Torchbearers
Aspirationals
Torchbearers are building new data sources
Figure 5
Abundance amid scarcity
214%more
69%
22%
The C-suite has extensive
access to accurate and
actionable 360-degree
customer data
“Organizations don’t know
how regulations will
change. So the question
becomes, should you
invest in gathering data
you may be cut off from
in the future? But doing
nothing is not a good
strategy. So what we do
is think about what the
world would be like
without cookies. And then
we formulate Plan B.”
Anna Sakowicz, Chief Data
and Analytics Officer,
Publicis Groupe, Poland

Torchbearers aren’t immune to data shortages in the
future. But organizations that have earned customer
trust are more likely to keep the data they have—their
customers won’t ask them to purge it—and collect more
of it in the future.
In industries that have been dependent on third-party
data, some organizations are growing wary of how
trustworthy their sources might be. Perhaps new
regulations might restrain the channel.
Swiss consumer goods giant Nestlé has responded by
curtailing its use of third-party data and doubling down
on collecting end-user data directly. “We have to drive
a high-trust bargain with consumers to get first-party
data in the age of GDPR,” says Pete Blackshaw, former
Global Head of Digital and Social Media at Nestlé.8
Nestlé, along with France-based retailer Carrefour,
has piloted this new approach to data on a block-
chain-based IBM Food Trust™ platform. Via QR codes,
consumers can track items from factory to warehouse
to store. Carrefour, which is using blockchain for a
number of items it sells, attributes an increase in sales
as a result.9
Where trust is difficult to establish, blockchains
can establish end-to-end transparency. Blockchain
provenance, for example, can help prevent counterfeit
semiconductors from flooding the market or outbreaks
of illness from contaminated foods. In virtually every
industry in which complex logistics, supply chains, or
financial transactions depend on immediate action—
and in which fraud or safety is paramount—blockchains
are creating unbreakable chains of trust.
Discovery: A Torchbearer’s tale
Trust and data form the twin strands in Discovery
Holdings’ corporate DNA. The South African financial
services firm started life in 1992 with what was then a
completely novel idea: providing health insurance that
makes people healthier. Customers who sign up with its
Vitality program agree to let Discovery track everything
from their physical activity to their nutrition. In return,
the company rewards those who make positive lifestyle
changes. The more points they earn, the more perks
they get and the lower the premiums they pay.
Discovery mines members’ personal data for
behavioral insights, which it uses to promote healthier
choices. It also collaborates with other organizations to
offer incentives. Under one such agreement with Apple
and US insurer John Hancock (a division of Manulife),
Vitality members can buy heavily discounted Apple
Watches. They pay a modest upfront fee and, if they
work out often enough each month, they pay nothing
more. “So Apple sells more watches, and we obtain
more data [from the health and fitness apps on the
watches],” Derek Wilcocks, Discovery’s CIO, explains.
That’s the demand side of the company’s business
model. On the supply side, Discovery operates a joint
venture with Australian fintech Quantium, using
machine learning to extract clinical insights from
blinded data and enable healthcare providers to make
more informed decisions.
Discovery’s approach rests on treating its customers
with complete probity. “We collect highly sensitive
data. In South Africa, for example, we have about
65,000 members on antiretroviral treatments for HIV.
That’s not something people would want to get out,”
Derek Wilcocks notes. “So we’ve established a strong
ethical foundation for the way we collect and use data.
We go to great lengths to protect our customers’ confi-
dentiality. Trust is at the heart of what we do.”

New models for data sharing, like those on the food
trust platform, require cooperation across the value
chain. Customers become the center of gravity. The
Torchbearers are prepared. Seven in ten Torchbearers
have moved well beyond understanding customer
needs to transforming their workflows to deliver value
at every customer touchpoint (see Figure 6).
Torchbearer CMOs are acting on the advantage
conferred by customer data mapped to intelligent
workflows. Seven in ten Torchbearer CMOs, compared to
just four in ten Aspirationals, tell us new customer data is
invaluable in exploring alternative business models.
Step three: Transform with
confidence
With trust in their data as their North Star, seven in
ten Torchbearers are confident in their ability to test
new business models as well as to enter new markets.
Only three in ten Aspirationals can say the same
(see Figure 7).
New business models have become contingent
on access to ever-bigger, ever-broader data. Going
forward, the innovations made possible by new
technologies seem just as likely to raise the bar
on customer trust as to satisfy it.
How Torchbearers generate outsized impact
Figure 6
Use it or lose it Torchbearers
Aspirationals
154%more
71%
28%
Using data, to a large extent, to identify unmet customer needs
146%more
69%
28%
Building the processes to deliver value at every customer touchpoint

Torchbearers use trusted data to strategic
advantage
Figure 7
Creating the future
Torchbearers
Aspirationals
112%more
70%
33%
Extensively using data to develop new business models
113%more
66%
31%
Extensively using data to enter new markets
Personalized premiums based on telematics in a
car, for example, set off new concerns about privacy.
By contrast, a blockchain-based business model that
traces the provenance of coffee—proving its sustain-
ability credentials as it moves from farm to factory to
corner store—has trust built into its fabric.
Business models that require more trust needn’t
be avoided. Quite the contrary, organizations that have
already earned customer trust can stake out a differen-
tiating position by taking on those models that raise the
bar on trust. By building a trust advantage, organiza-
tions can seize opportunities too risky for low-trust
brands.
Case in point: the global market opportunity for
usage-based auto insurance is expected to grow
to USD 107 billion by 2024.10
And compared to just
37 percent of Aspirationals, 82 percent of the
insurance Torchbearers we surveyed say that despite
the known data and privacy issues, they’re highly likely
to adopt data-linked insurance products. For individu-
alized insurance products, such as auto insurance
based on usage, insurers typically give back by sharing
with customers what they learn from the data they
collect to help them avoid risks.
Like insurance, every industry can innovate to help
customers realize their goals, make better decisions,
and live happier and healthier lives. Energy companies
are helping their customers use less electricity. Phone
manufacturers let users monitor and limit screen
time. Banks propose lower-priced account options.
Discovery Holdings, a financial services firm in South
Africa, has partnered with insurers such as US-based
John Hancock to help its customers adopt healthy
habits and lifestyle changes. (See sidebar, “Discovery:
A Torchbearer’s tale.”)

Companies are banding together to create a new
model, “the circular economy,” an initiative that has
also been showcased by the World Economic Forum.11
With the help of heterogeneous data and new technol-
ogies, circular economy adherents find new ways to
regenerate resources to sustain the environment. AB
InBev, the world’s largest brewer, for example, expects
100 percent of its product packaging to be made from
returnable or recycled content.12
It is working closely
with its suppliers and customers to make this happen,
earning trust for its brand along the way.
The trust advantage is conveyed to incumbents in the
banking industry. Of all the industries, customers trust
banks most.15
The trust banks have earned has been
credited as one reason they were able to stave off the
fintechs that once were expected to disintermediate
them. Looking to the future, banks expect that the trust
they have earned can be leveraged in a new role on
business platforms in other industries.
“When you combine the trust that banks have earned
with the relevance of the insights banks have,” says
a banking Managing Director in Ireland, “you get a very
interesting combination. Banks can use that trust and
insight to provide value-added services, which further
enhance the relationship with customers and further
build on that trust.”
Insight: Self-sovereign identity
Customers demand transparency about their personal
information today; tomorrow, customer expectations
could escalate. Many organizations posit that customers
will expect full control and ownership of their personal
data. Other organizations, determined to get ahead of
what they consider inevitable, are already making that
possible with self-sovereign identity models.
Self-sovereign identity allows users to provide proof
of their identity and their claims. A claim could be
something as straightforward as a customer’s home
address or a manufacturer’s accreditation by a trusted
third party. Self-sovereign identity puts control of private
data in the hands of individual customers and trading
partners.
Permission to use data can be pre-programmed by
customers for different parties and different situations,
including granting permission to use it for analytics.
These same self-sovereign models can be utilized by
partners in a supply chain or an industry alliance to
encourage data sharing with accountability, or by airlines
or others cross-sharing data through industry alliances.
If something doesn’t change, “Personal data use will
be challenged,” says Mark Lollback, GroupM Australia &
New Zealand CEO. “Consumers know their data is being
used, but they don’t always know how, where, and what
for. There is an increasing caution among consumers
about what they share and how it is tracked. If
businesses can’t demonstrate the value people get
in return, people will say, ‘I want my privacy back.’”
Tracking technologies take transparency offline and
into the real world. They are also fast becoming a
hot-button issue. Retailers, for example, are installing
cameras to determine precisely where a customer is
looking and for how long their gaze stays on a given
item. To protect customers’ privacy, many of these
facial recognition technologies don’t store images but
instead compile the inferences made about customers,
such as what interests them, as well as their age and
gender.13
Organizations can also use these same technologies to
detect and track mood. Will customers consider that a
step too far? Maybe, but most aren’t being asked.14
Trust can break down in an instant, but it’s rarely
created in one. History is on the side of incumbents
that have majored on trust for a long time.

Action guide
How to win in the trust economy
1. Prove transparency
Earn (back) trust by learning to use data in a way that
customers view as fair.
–
– Make information about your offerings visible
to customers.
–
– Create mechanisms to surface reviews, peer
recommendations, and other trusted sources
of information.
–
– Engineer your workflows to share valued and permis-
sioned data freely with your business partners.
2. Earn reciprocity
Give your customers something they value in return
for their data.
–
– Ask users and customers throughout the value chain
about what they would consider a fair exchange for
data and what tradeoffs they are willing to make.
–
– Explore the use of self-sovereign identity models that
put the control of data into the hands of customers
and business partners.
–
– Develop personalized services and experiences that
help your business partners and end users prosper.
Recommendations are based on extensive analysis
of comparative data, as well as on numerous
deep-dive interviews with C-suite executives at
leading Torchbearer organizations around the world.
They identify key differences for how Torchbearers
drive their businesses as compared to those in the
other stages.
3. Demonstrate accountability
Strengthen your data privacy policies and programs.
–
– Identify where your customers draw the line on
privacy. Be ready to meet and exceed those
expectations.
–
– Provide explicit assurances to customers about how
their personal data will be used and protected.
–
– Give proof: Back up those assurances through your
ongoing actions.
4. Double-click on data
Reposition data as an asset of strategic value to your
organization rather than a resource viewed in tactical,
operational terms.
–
– Identify how data can create a competitive
advantage, open up new market opportunities, or
reinvent the customer experience.
–
– Transform your business model to help assure trust.
Use the trust you’ve earned to stake out a differenti-
ating position.
–
– Map your data assets—your data, its sources, and
platforms, as well as analytical skills and tools—to
each of your business goals and strategic initiatives.
5. Future-proof your strategy
Craft scenarios involving data in order to increase
personalization and engagement at every touchpoint.
–
– Get your customers, partners, employees, and the
C-suite in a collaborative “garage” environment to
innovate supply chain and end-user experiences.
–
– Map the customer journey to identify critical
moments of trust and trust breakdowns.
–
– Make trust a design point in all of your use cases.

Chapter 2
Enterprises
How to build the human-tech
partnership
The interplay between people and AI,
also known as augmented intelligence,
resets organizations’ expectations for
what data can do. Organizations that
once focused on personalized
experiences are learning to do
something more: humanize them.
Bots, once relegated to online
customer services, are now becoming
trusted advisors to employees.
With insights increasingly derived from
data-fueled algorithms, which
conclusions are worth accepting?
And what might provide false
promise, or precipitate unintended
consequences?

For many organizations, these central and critical
questions serve as a roadblock, an obstacle in
developing an effective human-technology partnership
that augments decisions and workflows with actionable
intelligence. As systems become more automated, and
even autonomous, the need for deep trust in data—and
in AI models—is reaching a new apex. Without trusted
data and trusted AI, organizations can’t scale to
mission-critical use cases.
But for the Torchbearers, these new realities are less
obstacle than opportunity. The Torchbearers:
–
– Trust in data to make decisions of consequence and
give their employees the tools to do so as well
–
– Swiftly accelerate their deployment of AI and other
exponential technologies and are confident in the
return on investment
–
– Institute robust governance to deepen their trust—
as well as that of their customers—in data and AI
models.
The interplay between people and AI, also known as
augmented intelligence, is resetting these organiza-
tions’ expectations for what data can do. They are
building a culture of data believers, while demon-
strating both an enthusiasm for emerging technologies
and a willingness to engage in the gnarliest areas of
data reliability, governance, bias, and ethics.
Step one: Build a culture of
data believers
For decades, economists, sociologists, and
management gurus have been debating the primacy
of gut instinct versus data-based decisions. The
medical profession was one of the first to be asked
to adopt evidence-based decisions: to rely less on the
art of diagnosis and more on the science of medical
research, to trust in what data could tell them. To
this day, not all doctors are fully on board.
For many, data still appears too open to interpretation
to be relied on for decisions of consequence. The
Torchbearers don’t share those fears: eight in ten
Torchbearers say that they and their C-suite colleagues
have deep trust in data to enhance the quality and
speed of decision making. They have a data mindset:
they are predisposed to use data as the basis for
significant decisions.
In contrast, only one-third of Aspirationals say the
executives in their C-suite have a true data mindset.
The result? Torchbearers have an advantage that will
be hard for others to attain (see Figure 8).
The Torchbearer C-suite has deep trust in
data to make decisions
Figure 8
Bots are us
Torchbearers
Aspirationals
108%more
79%
38%
Our enterprise is collecting the types of data needed to make decisions
129%more
78%
34%
Our C-suite team has the data mindset needed to
improve the quality of decision making

What has prevented some organizations from adopting
a data mindset? Many of the C-suite executives we
surveyed chalk it up to hubris. Those in the C-suite,
they tell us, value the wisdom derived from decades of
experience above insights gleaned from big data. The
problem is particularly acute, says Michelle Anderson,
Chief Digital Officer of The Warehouse Group in New
Zealand, “when the output from data models tells an
unexpected story.”
It’s the culture, most C-suite executives agree.
What’s more, even our Millennial-aged survey
respondents are no more likely than older generations
to trust in data to make decisions. Trust in data
to formulate decisions doesn’t appear to be a
consequence of age, or even C-suite role, although
CIOs rely slightly more on data for decisions than
other executives do.
The Torchbearers’ mindset is founded at least partly
in experience. Their confidence in the quality of the
data they turn to has been tested and won over time.
They are true data believers.
The Aspirationals, by contrast, are short on trusted
customer data. More to the point, just 16 percent of
the Aspirationals are fully sharing data among their
business units. Data siloes predominate. It’s no
wonder they have little trust in data to make decisions.
(See sidebar, “The cost of data siloes.”)
How do you get reluctant executives on board? A CIO
from a telecommunications organization in Turkey
opines that the best way to draw in senior leaders is
to inspire them. “Find high-value use cases where
predictive data models help make futuristic business
decisions,” this CIO recommends.
In other words, help leaders see what they’re missing.
Throwing a spotlight on what has never been possible
or tried before can help bring recalcitrant executives
to the table.
Embracing data-for-everyone
A culture of data believers isn’t just about engaging
an organization’s leaders. Torchbearers make it
a ground-up proposition. In fact, 73 percent of
Torchbearers are empowering their workforces to fully
participate in a data-rich environment, compared to
just 29 percent of Aspirationals (see Figure 9).
Insight: The cost of data siloes
To our surprise, many organizations have yet to do
what’s fundamental: fully share data across the
enterprise. Just 16 percent of Aspirationals have
broken down their data siloes, compared to 64
percent of Torchbearers.
Data is freely shared across other
functional business areas
Torchbearers
Aspirationals
64%
16%
300%more
Organizations will be hard-pressed to meet their
customers’ expectations for transparency and trust if
they aren’t even sharing data within the enterprise.
What’s holding them back?
The Aspirationals are stuck in a culture where the full
value of data is not being realized. Aspirationals may
be caught in the “knowledge is power” mindset—or,
rather, “my knowledge is my power.” They do admit
that their C-suites aren’t very collaborative and that
they don’t pull together to craft an enterprise
strategy.
Alarmingly, Aspirational CMOs aren’t yet making
enterprise-wide access to customer data a priority.
We asked respondents to select and rank data-
related priorities, and easy access to marketing and
customer data by other functions came in second-
to-last place. Worse yet, ensuring that policies about
customer data were clearly communicated and
followed across the enterprise came in last.

Woodside Energy, the pioneer of the liquefied natural
gas industry in Australia, has made data-for-everyone
its mission. The company has created a “citizen
science platform” that anyone, even those who can’t
code, can use for oil and gas exploration. Employees
can use drag-and-drop algorithms and other visual-
ization options to discover new patterns when looking
at data.
“We want all our great minds tapping into data
because each one will look at things differently,” says
Woodside Chief Digital Officer, Shelley Kalms. “We’re
aiming for a ‘learn-it’ mindset, rather than a ‘know-it-
all’ mindset. We’re trying to unlock the collective
intelligence of our organization by bringing the data,
information, and insights together to improve our
operations and the working lives of our people.”
“We will need to drive
more decisions from
data. Leaders will need
to let go and let lower
levels step up to make
decisions. This will be a
culture shock.”
Massimo Andolina,
SVP Operations,
Philip Morris International,
Switzerland
Torchbearers empower employees
to dive into data
Figure 9
Information rich
Torchbearers
Aspirationals
73%
29%
152%more
Our C-suite is actively
working to provide
employees with the
analytical skills and
tools they require

Elsewhere among Torchbearers, real-time data and
visualization tools are being used to show data in flight,
to see what’s happening inside a company’s plants or
on the retail floor. With growing frequency, real-time
tools can even depict what’s happening outside the
enterprise’s four walls. “We have installed sensors at
our customers’ sites, which helps us to understand how
our products perform at their operations,” says a
chemicals COO in the US. “Our employees can
understand this data easily to improve the service
we provide to customers.”
The Torchbearers recognize something that seems
obvious but that most others are not yet doing.
Employees don’t just need new skills to be comfortable
working with data; they need new tools. “To constrain
data analytics to only the data scientist community
will get you just so far,” a US electronics CMO tells us.
“The only way to extract the most value out of the data
we have is to unleash data for the masses by giving
them the right tools.”
A telecommunications organization in Latin America is
well on its way to inculcating a new culture. According
to its CMO, “All of the decisions that can be data driven
have already been migrated to analytics.” When the
company decides where to place cell phone antennas,
a costly investment, or a store, “humans don’t decide
alone. That decision has to be supported by big data.
Senior leaders all have data experts on their teams,
as they can’t make any kind of decision without a data
report supporting it,” he tells us.
Utilizing AI for sentiment analysis and predictive
analytics for more intelligent interactions with its
customers, the organization seeks to become a trusted
advisor to its customers. As the company migrates
more of its data to platforms, the CMO says, “We are
no longer a telco company. We are an experience
company.”
“The most important
challenge will be
the ability of an
organization to adapt
to the disruption
caused by data-based
decision making.”
Suraj Chettri, Regional
Director HR, Airbus India
& South Asia

Step two: Unlock
exponential opportunity
(and trust)
Today’s organizations know more about their
operations, their customers, their ecosystems than
ever before. Wearables, internet-connected devices,
and robots are generating new data streams from
factories, oil rigs, construction sites, and shop floors.
Like puzzle pieces, each piece of data fits with others to
reveal a bigger picture. Their quest for context is getting
both more compelling and more challenging with each
technological breakthrough.
Showrooms, for example, can capture data from
customers’ gestures, facial expressions, and vocal
intonations as they interact with products they wish
to buy. Machinists can project digital manuals and
virtual displays as they reconfigure a production line.
Blockchains can track the sources and origins of data.
AI can make sense of intricate patterns of contextual
data and learn from them.
Exponential technologies like virtual and augmented
reality reveal context at scale. Every person and every
thing becomes “more knowable”—not just in the
abstract, but in the moment. These technologies, like
the microscope and telescope before them, can make
citizen scientists of all of us. They allow individuals to
see up close and far afield, sparking new ways of
thinking as surely as they illuminate new ways of
working and innovating.
Among the more compelling tools emerging from these
new technologies—aided by truly big data streaming
from connected sensors—are “digital twins”: precise
data replicas of intelligent workflows, innovative
prototypes, and breakthrough processes. Digital twins
offer engineers and plant managers alike a chance to
simulate a multitude of scenarios involving their physical
assets.
Digital twins reveal what is happening now, or what
could happen far into the future. Data sent from
sensors attached to the physical object could be used
to troubleshoot a manufacturing bottleneck from afar,
optimize a crew and its machinery on a construction
site, or monitor the safety of workers on an oil rig.
Torchbearers, having proven that they can generate
robust returns on established technologies—such as
cloud, Internet of Things (IoT), and mobile—are
confident in their powers to do the same with
exponential technologies (see Figure 10).
Torchbearers expect to excel at next-
generation exponential technologies
Figure 10
Ahead of the curve
Torchbearers
Aspirationals
440%more
High ROI expected in the
future from exponential
technologies
54%
10%

We conducted correlation analysis and discovered that
Torchbearers most frequently use exponential technol-
ogies in concert. They aren’t majoring on just one
technology. Instead, they are creating value by
combining them. AI is central to that effort. The
Torchbearers stand apart from all others in their focus
on AI to make sense of data in context and light up new
paths forward (see Figure 11).
Which brings us back to trust. AI-supported organiza-
tions turn decisions into iterative innovation and
intelligent workflows. They’re at the forefront of
delivering customer experiences that are not just
personalized but humanized, building trust through
never-before-possible services.
Torchbearers seek to extend their advantage
Figure 11
Making intelligence choices
80%more
Planning large
investment in AI or
machine learning
72%
40%
Torchbearers
Aspirationals
Bots are ubiquitous online as self-service apps. But
they aren’t destined to stay there. They can help
humans better interpret customer needs anywhere
so more empathetic decisions can be available on
the front lines and in the moment, whether for a
salesperson on a shop floor, a customer service rep
in a call center, or a procurement specialist.
The objective is not to replace humans but to augment
human intelligence and interactions. At Club Med,
AI-enabled systems can alert employees in call centers
about the context of the call—what website pages
customers were looking at, for example—as well as
offer detailed histories of customer behavior. (See
sidebar, “Club Med: A Torchbearer’s tale.”)
The Torchbearers are ready. In the next few years, 62
percent of Torchbearers expect to use AI to a large
extent to facilitate interactions among customers or
employees, compared to a paltry 8 percent of
Aspirationals.
Data grows in value as context is applied. Likewise,
the humanized experience must be attuned to context:
a customer’s specific preferences in the moment. AI
can reveal what makes those moments human and, in
the process, build more trust. Tone analyzers can read
emails, tweets, and call-center scripts to determine if a
person is frustrated or thrilled. Organizations can draw
on social, psycholinguistic, and other unstructured data
to create personas, extend empathy to stand in their
customers’ shoes, and map steps in the customer
journey.
Step three: Confront what’s
difficult
As AI advances, it is pushing our workflows and
operations, as well as customer services, toward
greater autonomy. Over time, cars aren’t the only
things that will be self-driving. Banks are already
implementing self-driving investment portfolios.
Autonomous shipping containers can act on their
own to protect their contents from spoilage in the
case of unforeseen delays. But first, organizations
need to master the data behind dozens, if not
hundreds or thousands, of algorithms.

Club Med: A Torchbearer’s tale
“A holiday at one of Club Med’s luxury resorts is a
high-stake purchase,” says Anne Browaeys, Club
Med’s Chief Marketing, Digital, and Technology
Officer. People take about three months to make
the decision—longer than they take to buy anything
other than a house or an automobile. “Most of the
buying journey occurs online, but 80 percent of
those who book a trip phone the call center at least
once. So getting a 360-degree view of the customer
is very important to us,” she explains.
Club Med has gone to great lengths to ensure
that it can indeed observe its customers in the
round. When customers contact the call center,
employees can immediately see all their pertinent
details, including their booking history and
behavioral history—and even which page of the
website they were looking at, if they hit the click-
to-call button. The company is now introducing a
system that uses machine learning to analyze
everything from customers’ emails to the level of
satisfaction they express in consumer surveys.
Within the next year, it will be able to personalize
its interactions with every customer on every
incoming call.
Club Med has also developed an analytics tool to
help its business and marketing managers make
sense of the data it collects. Rather than having to
rely on a team of specialists for the answers to all
their queries, they can simply put the app on their
phones and use it to delve into the data. “We
believe it’s best to bring the data closer to the
people who are actually using it. We want to put
data in every layer of the business for daily decision
making,” Anne Browaeys concludes.
Data that is “fit for training” requires careful quality
assurance. It must be clean. The Torchbearers are
assiduously perfecting the quality of their data (see
Figure 12).
The Torchbearers are concerned as well about data
drift: the tendency of data to become inaccurate
over time. Six in ten Torchbearers are focused on
incorporating current real-time data. Just three in
ten Aspirationals are.
Organizations recognize that it’s no longer sufficient
to simply pour all their data into a data lake and expect
everyone to go fishing. Instead, they must curate data
to meet specific business needs and intelligent
workflows. A marketer, for example, requires a very
different view of data than someone in R&D.
In turn, curation requires metadata. Metadata, the
information about information, reveals context. It
depicts the relationships among data sets, their sources,
and their history. Absent strong metadata, it’s difficult to
integrate data and retrieve it for specific purposes to
deploy analytics and AI models. Governance is
necessary to set the parameters, agree on labels, and
decide what metadata is needed. Machine learning
technologies can then be trained to profile and classify
data, automating metadata generation.
Extensive data cleansing
Torchbearers
Aspirationals
75%
43%
74%more
Torchbearers are working to improve the
quality of their data
Figure 12
Clean it up
Extensive data purging
65%
28%
132%more

.
Data that is clean, current, curated, and contextualized
creates something profound: confidence in data and
the AI models it supports.
To achieve this state, of course, data must be
accessible, and, too often, that is not the case. (See
sidebar, “Missing ingredient.”) Hybrid cloud solutions
permit public cloud, private cloud, and on-premises
IT to interoperate seamlessly, enabling businesses to
act with agility. That agility is enabled by hybrid cloud
because enterprises can run applications and access
data from across multiple disparate platforms, aligned
under a common set of policy requirements for
security, regulatory compliance, and governance.
Torchbearers expect to edge out Aspirationals in their
implementation of hybrid clouds (see Figure 13).
Hybrid clouds are where legacy systems begin the
journey to modernization, achieve scale, and extend
across an enterprise through application programming
interfaces (APIs) and software-as-a-service. As they
do, data becomes seamlessly available and workflows
more intelligent.
Figure 13
Up, up, and away
Torchbearers
Aspirationals
Torchbearers expect lift from hybrid clouds
70%
49%
43%more
High level of investment
in hybrid clouds planned
over the next few years
Insight: Missing ingredient
Although the Torchbearers are far ahead of the
Aspirationals, even many Torchbearers are
struggling to access and use unstructured data.
The intelligent workflows and humanized
experiences that organizations strive to create
will require a significant acceleration of capability:
the skills and architecture to make use of data
streaming from devices on the IoT and being
exchanged via social media.
We can use both structured and
unstructured data
Torchbearers
Aspirationals
60%
34%
76%more

Principles, bias, and ethics
AI and its capacity to generate advice free of self-
interest could go a long way toward restoring trust
in sectors that sorely need it. Additionally, the more
customers trust the advice being offered, the more data
they will share, thus creating a positive feedback loop.
That trust feedback loop underscores the importance of
governance. This includes assessing the quality of data,
as proven through its lineage. Governance also uncovers
cognitive bias, which—albeit unintentional—sometimes
gets baked into AI models and data. The Torchbearers
have the foundation to create trusted data for AI and
machine learning: 69 percent have robust enter-
prise-wide governance in place. Just 22 percent of
Aspirationals have adopted rules for the collection,
usage, and sharing of data (see Figure 14).
Good governance of AI includes transparency and
accountability, the same principles required to create
customer trust. But above all others, it assures
fairness, which includes ethics applied to how data
will be used and the careful elimination of bias.
Fairness becomes a board-level topic.
“The governance of data
and how we govern AI
models—how they’re
validated and used—are
now board-level issues.
So, too, is the ethical use
of data.”
COO, Banking, Netherlands
Torchbearers adhere to good governance
Figure 14
In rules we trust
214%more
Governance clearly
defines rules for the
collection, usage, and
sharing of data
69%
22%
Torchbearers
Aspirationals

Human bias shows up in AI models in two ways. First,
it is often embedded in the data itself. For example, a
customer may respond to a query about their purchase
of a photocopier by saying they valued its price—
without recognizing that the determinative factor
was its warranty.
Second, the bias may be introduced by the humans
who train the AI models. The people who create those
models may expect, for example, that the best data to
determine creditworthiness is past history when other
factors actually may be even more determinative. AI
models may also reflect historical biases, which have
determined the data that is available. For example,
some groups, like women in drug trials, are less likely
to be represented by data.16
To date, more than 180 human biases have been
identified and classified, any one of which can affect
how humans make decisions or collect data.17
The
sheer complexity of identifying and eliminating each
piece of potentially biased data makes the process an
excellent candidate for automation. Organizations are
learning to train the models themselves to recognize
and automatically suppress bias.
No matter how “perfect” a data set and how “smart”
a data model or learning system, errors will inevitably
creep in. To mitigate this, data models must be fully
transparent about the potential for error. The degree
to which an error matters will depend on context.
For example, face recognition systems generate false
positives. If the system is used to look for a missing
child, false positives may be considered an acceptable
outcome. If the objective instead is to incriminate
someone, that risk is unacceptable.
When AI remains inside a black box, it spits out results
that may not be easily trusted by humans. For humans
to trust the answers derived from AI and machine
learning, they will require answers with evidence.
Data requires a code, and so do ethics. Leading
organizations are establishing ethical guidelines for
how data is purposed and to what end. Almost a year
after the GDPR went into effect in 2018, the EU
launched its Ethics Guidelines for Trustworthy AI.
In broad strokes, they advise that organizations take
into account respect for human autonomy, prevention
of harm, fairness, and accountability as important
principles. They also recommend that citizens have
full control over their data.18
“Utilization of AI at scale
comes with the need for
transparent, explainable
outcomes, free from
bias. Otherwise, AI has
limitations. We are now
trying to establish a
code of ethics and core
principles for using AI in
our business.”
Kazushi Ambe, Executive
Vice President, Officer in
Charge of Human Resources
and General Affairs,
Sony Corporation

1. Lead trust in data from the top
Put data-based decision making at the top of the
C-suite’s agenda.
–
– Embed a data mindset into management systems.
–
– Make data trustworthy to support C-suite-level
decisions.
–
– Utilize data and predictive analytics to identify and
model future scenarios, big bets, and next-best
actions.
2. Empower employees to become citizen scientists
Liberate your data from the ground up.
–
– Give all of your employees access to the tools they
need to dive into data—even if they aren’t data
scientists.
–
– Invest in analytics, data, and visualization tools, as
well as skills development, to empower your entire
workforce.
–
– Make sure your teams that are exploring the data
span the business and include diverse thinkers
representing a range of skills.
3. Push the envelope on data and technology
Expand your horizons on what data can do.
–
– Apply cutting-edge technologies, particularly AI, to
make sense of data in context, automate workflows,
and humanize the customer experience.
–
– Move AI from online to the front lines—into the hands
of every employee who interacts with business
partners and customers.
–
– Use digital twins to allow for real-time physical asset
and workflow simulations, including remote trouble-
shooting and logistics optimization.
4. Establish enterprise-wide data governance
Be transparent about your analytics, AI models, and
data processes, and establish enterprise-wide data
governance.
–
– Allocate ownership, responsibility, and account-
ability for the enterprise-wide data strategy.
–
– Put strong rules in place for how you acquire, store,
and use your data; keep it current, clean, and
curated.
–
– Eliminate bias from your data and AI models,
applying automation to help you do so.
5. Leverage the power of hybrid cloud
Provide the scale for data proliferation as you broaden
the range and diversity of your data sources.
–
– Use technological capabilities such as hybrid cloud,
IoT, 5G, and edge computing to enable the
acquisition, storage, and sharing of data.
–
– Deploy enterprise platforms comprising data, AI, and
immersive security to break down organizational
siloes and foster collaboration.
–
– Craft intelligent workflows to extract real-time value
from data and to create “as-a-service” capabilities.
Action guide
How to build the human-tech
partnership
other stages.

Chapter 3
Ecosystems
How to share data in the
platform era
The advantages of “open” made the
leap from software to business models
long ago. As value chains morphed
into ecosystems, and then again into
platform business models, data pools
rippled out in ever-widening circles
outside the organization, eventually
spilling across industries.
Data that stays inside the organization
is more likely to drift out of date than to
grow in value. In circulation, flowing
freely among business functions,
streaming across enterprises and
ecosystems, data germinates.
But what if you lose control?

Most organizations agree that new value from data
will be generated by ecosystems of partners, often
operating on a shared business platform. As organiza-
tions swarm to these platform-based models, “big-bet
decisions” will have to be made.
On the one hand, proprietary data has been a
significant incumbent advantage. On the other hand,
data shared across business platforms is one of the
surest ways to create future advantage, network
effects, and the outsized returns that can come
with them.
The Torchbearers:
–
– Utilize data to create new business strategies and
expand their partner networks
–
– Generate exponential value from data by trusting
partners and evolving systems, and sharing data
across ecosystems
–
– Guide their drive to value by adopting a data strategy
that explicitly determines how they can best plan to
monetize their data.
Step one: Learn to share
As Winston Churchill is rumored to have quipped,
“Never let a good crisis go to waste.” The fast fall of
customer trust could be one such crisis-turned-oppor-
tunity. Instead of letting it drag them down, some
organizations are making it the impetus to reframe the
future.
The Torchbearers, unlike the Aspirationals, identify their
enterprise strategy and vision as one of the top three
activities where they derive value from data (see Figure
15). For many, new business platforms are the next
evolution of their strategy. As a financial markets CEO
in China stresses, “The winners in the data game will
be the ones that open themselves up to partners and
collaboration.” A UK CMO in the electronics industry
concurs, adding, “In the coming years, the rise of
strategic partnerships will cross industries.”
Torchbearers are more apt to use data to grow revenues
and define strategy, while the top focus for Aspirationals
remains cost reduction
Figure 15
More versus less
Torchbearers
Aspirationals
Top three activities where data drives most value: Revenue growth
56%
46%
22%more
Top three activities where data drives most value: Enterprise strategy and vision
52%
38%
37%more
Top three activities where data drives most value: Cost reduction
48%
48%
0%more

In fact, the majority of organizations—including
85 percent of the Torchbearers—expect their partner
networks to continue to expand in the next few years.
Even 60 percent of Aspirationals envision wider
networks in their future (see Figure 16).
Yet just 25 percent of Aspirationals are sharing data
with their partners today. In part, that’s because
Aspirationals lack the strategic asset—trusted, rich
data—that most organizations expect partners to bring
to the table. But there are broader reasons, too. While
twice as many Torchbearers are sharing data with
partners, at 56 percent, the number is relatively low in
light of their plans to adopt new business models (see
Figure 17).
Most respondents see larger partner networks
in their future
Figure 16
Hoping...
Torchbearers
Aspirationals
42%more
Expect partner networks to
expand in next few years 85%
60%
Torchbearers are charting a course to open
those ecosystems
Figure 17
... and acting
124%more
Acquiring and sharing
data extensively with
network partners
56%
25%
Torchbearers
Aspirationals
What’s holding so many back? In the words of a US
telecommunications CIO, companies are just beginning
to learn how to “thrive through transparency while
maintaining a strategic advantage.” The tension
between data transparency and proprietary advantage
is pulling organizations in two opposing directions.
Each organization will need to evaluate which of its
datasets are composed of truly non-rivalrous data that
should be shared to accrue new value and which should
remain proprietary. Hardest of all, organizations will
have to determine where the value of data creates a
current, but transient, advantage and then assess
whether sharing that same data could create a better
future advantage.
Leading organizations operating platforms will have
to have an appetite for rapid-cycle change, relentless
learning, and iterative execution. They must always be
on the lookout for what new value can be extracted
from their data.

Step two: Develop a platform
strategy
One thing is certain: the emergence of digital business
platforms will necessitate a new approach to data
sharing. These digital platforms were the first to
shed the legacy rules of business and reconceive
e-commerce as ecosystems. These platforms became
vehicles for trusted exchanges among multiple
producers and consumers. They earned revenues
by orchestrating connections among parties and
designing their platforms to exploit network effects.
In every industry, platform players are adding
demand-side economics to the more traditional
supply-side economics, opening up their platforms
for others to join, and otherwise rewriting the rules
that once determined value creation. Today, platforms
dominate markets in every region. Some already hold
winner-takes-most status.
Business platforms have well-known economies of
scale, for which companies are generating outsized
returns. But when it comes to data—and also customer
engagement—it’s the economies of scope that often
shape strategy. Economies of scope are an evolution in
a company’s strategy from specialized to expansive.
Organizations on platforms create economies of scope
by extending to adjacent spaces, connecting broad
categories of complementary products and services
in a way that makes experiences more holistic for
customers. A platform that links real estate agents,
home inspectors, insurers, and mortgage lenders, for
example, puts the customer at the center of a more
seamless experience.
In every industry, companies are turning to platforms
and ecosystem partners in pursuit of new heteroge-
neous data. Telecommunications carriers are offering
streaming video services, including access to online
movie libraries. Some are becoming financial service
providers. Electronics manufacturers have joined with
healthcare providers and insurers to scale health and
wellness platforms. Connected cars are linking with
hotel chains and travel companies to provide concierge
services.
New value is created by the breadth and diversity of the
interactions the platform owner orchestrates, usually
beyond a single industry. (See sidebar, “The Cognitive
Enterprise.”)
Insight: The Cognitive
Enterprise
As AI, automation, IoT, blockchain, and 5G become
pervasive, their combined impact will reshape
standard business architectures. The “outside-in”
digital transformation of the past decade is giving
way to the “inside-out” potential of data exploited
with these exponential technologies.
We call this next-generation business model the
Cognitive Enterprise.19
It’s composed of four
fundamental areas: 1) Market-Making Business
Platforms, 2) Enterprise Experience, 3) Intelligent
Workflows, and 4) Human-Technology Partnership.
–
– Market-Making Business Platforms. We see
companies placing bets on the creation of
business platforms to solidify competitive
advantage and differentiation. These platforms
must be massively digitally connected from the
outside in and fully cognitively enabled from the
inside out. Once made, the choice of platform
represents a big bet for the organization.
–
– Enterprise Experience. We see organizations
looking to differentiate their platforms and
processes through the design and operation of
consistent experiences that straddle the worlds
of the customer, employee, enterprise, and
ecosystem. Trusted data is at the heart of such
experiences.
–
– Intelligent Workflows. Cognitive organizations
operating on business platforms are often
focused on being the very best in one main area,
whether it’s a customer-facing experience or an
aspect of their supply chains. That ambition is
achieved by applying exponential technologies to
rethink strategic workflows that can scale with
ease so that both human and machine learn
continuously.
–
– Human-Technology Partnership. For all the
focus on the impact of new technologies and
AI, the most important aspect of the Cognitive
Enterprise is still going to be its people. Making
this work seamlessly will require a much stronger
set of continuous feedback mechanisms and
methods of engaging the wider organization in
the co-creation of compelling experiences.

CMOs, in particular, understand the need to share data
across their partnerships (see Figure 18). They have
historically been eager to gain a deep understanding
across their value chains of who buys what, when, and
why. Now they can go much further. The rich patterns
revealed by abundant and heterogeneous data on
business platforms lead to more granular personal-
ization for customers and a better understanding of
their needs.
In our previous C-suite study, “Incumbents Strike
Back,” the incumbent organizations we surveyed
declared their intentions to own new platforms. They
were eager to orchestrate platforms and extract new
value from data. The discussion was focused on making
an entrance and learning to scale with ease.20
Two
years later, the question is less about how they scale
new platforms and more about how they capitalize on
their advantage.
Figure 18
Between friends
Torchbearers
Aspirationals
Torchbearer CMOs seek new data from
partners
58%
33%
76%more
Engaging partner
network to access new
data is very important
“By building PPP,
our Public Private
Partnership platform,
we are supporting new
business entrants,
including startups and
foreign companies, to
use open and affordable
data to take a leading
position in the competi-
tion among cities.”
Takahiro Matsushita,
Director General, Office for
Strategic Policy and ICT
Promotion, Tokyo Metropolitan
Government, Japan

“We plan to give the
clients in our ecosystem
full access to data so they
can do business with
each other and learn
about each other’s skills
and capabilities.”
CEO, Financial Markets, France
A recent study of more than 250 business platforms
revealed their four most common mistakes.One was
the failure to develop trust with users and partners.
The professors from Harvard, Oxford, and MIT who
conducted the study advised, “...put trust front and
center. Asking customers or suppliers to take a leap of
faith, without history and without prior connections to
the other side of a market, is usually asking too much
of any platform business.”21
To increase trust, they suggest, data on the
performance of platform members must be
transparent. That includes trust mechanisms
such as user reviews. The platform operator is then
responsible for validating that feedback—identifying
the fakes—and computing easy-to-understand
scores.22
On business platforms, learning fosters trust and is a
function of how well data flows through the platform.
Chinese online retailer Alibaba, for example, gave new
life to the small shops it brought onto its platform by
exposing them to new customers. But it also freely
shared data that helped those shops create closer
bonds with their customers and improve their
performance. As the authors of a 2019 Harvard
Business Review article noted, when Alibaba bridged
its retail with its payment platforms, it created
a service valued by both buyers and sellers,
“fostering trust between them.”23
Global brands have turned to Alibaba’s Tmall
Innovation Center to develop and design new products
specific to Chinese consumer tastes. Major consumer
brands have tapped into the shopping data from
Alibaba’s sprawling ecosystem to develop new and
customized products for the Chinese market, from
mouthwash to baby gear, candy to beer. Not all the
action takes place online. With data from Alibaba,
global brands are crafting marketing campaigns and
deciding which neighborhoods to target. They can
even utilize Alibaba’s smart vending machines to give
consumers an opportunity to sample new products
and provide feedback in real time.24
Platforms, respondents in virtually every industry tell
us, are fast becoming a disruptive force. “At one time,
low-cost carriers created a disruption in the airlines
industry. Now, it is the transformation of airlines to
become full retail platforms,” says one COO in the US.
“Digital will be thought of as a platform instead of a
channel,” notes a US banking CIO.

Organizations with expectations to lead the next wave
of change understand what is needed. “We are the
driving force in next-generation logistics,” says a
healthcare CIO in Mexico. “This requires much more
open ecosystems, with the strategic focus on enabling
a broad set of stakeholders. The key is transparent
data sharing.”
To date, most data sharing takes place within existing
value chains. Many governments are eager to
encourage wider data sharing so they can grow their
GDP, jumpstart innovation, and contribute to the
public good. That’s why some regions have already
mandated data sharing and others are considering it.
In the European Union, for example, banks are
required to share transactional data with others—
when their customers consent. That has spurred the
“open banking” movement.28
Many incumbents aren’t
grumbling; instead, they’re finding that it’s a positive
forcing mechanism. Their eyes are now on a new
future. Some are creating the open API platforms
to monetize their data. Startups once seen as
competitors are now their partners. (See sidebar,
“TradeLens: A Torchbearer’s tale.”)
“One of our top priorities is to drive revenue growth
by bringing new products and services into our
ecosystem,” says a banking CIO in Hong Kong. “To
do this, we will accelerate our integration with API
providers in different industries.”
“In the ‘platformication’ of industry,” one CIO says,
“the dark horse is legislation.” Uncertainty regarding
regulations has a dampening effect. “There are no
open API regulations, no appetite to come up with
ways to allow the sharing of derived data and ways to
monetize it. We need to be able to create marketplaces.
Regulations need to be updated,” says a banking CIO
in the United Arab Emirates.
Many banks already have the trust required to
orchestrate the activities on platforms and serve as
trusted custodians of user data. In a recent survey,
seven in ten customers indicated they are willing to
share personal information and data with their banks
or other financial services institutions, the highest
percentage response for any industry measured.29
Likewise, seven in ten bank executives surveyed tell
us that platform business models are disruptive for
the banking industry as a whole. In addition, survey
respondents from the most visionary banks expect
TradeLens: A Torchbearer’s
tale
TradeLens is riding the wave of change made
possible by cross-industry collaboration. This open
shipping platform underpinned by blockchain
technology was launched to help modernize the
world’s supply chain ecosystems. It now consists
of more than 100 different organizations, collec-
tively handling more than half of the world’s ocean
container cargo.25
The platform was jointly developed by Maersk and
IBM and lays the foundation for digital supply
chains. It empowers multiple trading partners to
collaborate—publishing and subscribing to events
data—by establishing a single shared view of a
transaction without compromising details, privacy,
or confidentiality.
Many of the processes for transporting and trading
goods are expensive, partly as a result of manual
and paper-based systems. Replacing these
peer-to-peer—and often unreliable—information
exchanges, TradeLens enables digital collaboration
among the multiple parties involved in international
trade.26
Shippers, ocean carriers, freight forwarders, port
and terminal operators, inland transportation,
customs authorities, and others can interact more
efficiently through real-time access to shipping
data and shipping documents, including IoT and
sensor data. The members of the platform gain
a comprehensive view of their data and can
collaborate as cargo moves around the world,
helping create a transparent, secured, immutable
record of transactions.27

to earn an average of 58 percent of their revenues
from platform initiatives in the next three years.
This is more than twice the average percentage
expected by respondents from less visionary banks.30
Banks are early-stage leaders in learning the virtue of
simultaneously monetizing trust and data.
we.trade, a collaboration with 14 banks, established
a blockchain network for cross-border trade finance.
Banks have traditionally facilitated trade deals by
serving as intermediaries and providing financing
for transactions. But, says Roberto Mancone, former
Chief Operating Officer at we.trade, “The traditional
trade finance model run by banks had not evolved for
decades. Banks were not able to scale their platform
to make it available to all clients, while companies did
not want to be exposed to counterparty risk.”31
Often, companies have found that a barrier to trading
with businesses in other countries is the difficulty
of guaranteeing that a contract will be enforced.
we.trade’s built-in smart contracts eliminate this form
of counterparty risk. The smart contracts guarantee
that if one party in a transaction fulfills the necessary
requirements, as previously agreed and recorded in
the blockchain, the payment process is executed
automatically. The smart contracts help ensure that all
parties receive instant triggers demonstrating how one
side is following the agreement and notifying the other
when it is time to implement their side of the deal—
such as by sending payment.32
Step three: Quantify your
data dividend
Data may be an organization’s most valuable asset, but
it’s off the balance sheet—and difficult to quantify, both
in terms of costs and direct returns. Compounding that
challenge is the nature of data: its value can grow
exponentially when shared.
The economic value of data sharing, however, is
difficult to decode. Moreover, organizations are worried
that they might mistakenly give away the crown jewels.
The level of risk organizations are prepared to accept
hangs entirely on their confidence in execution.
By quantifying the value of enterprise data, determining
how it might grow when it’s shared, and tying it to their
objectives to strengthen trust, organizations can drive
collaboration across the enterprise and across their
ecosystem of partners.
“The biggest challenge
organizations need to
address is to become
data-driven in their
decision making. Instead
of being afraid of the
data, organizations need
to look at data as their
biggest weapon to fight
and drive digital
disruption.”
Fausto Sosa, IT VP, Cemex,
Mexico

Six in ten Torchbearers, twice as many as the
Aspirationals, have taken the first step by formulating an
enterprise data monetization strategy (see Figure 19).
They are applying data monetization to new business
models. Some industries are ahead of others: seven
in ten Torchbearers in banking have a monetization
strategy in place, and seven in ten are applying that
monetization strategy to establish new business
models. Six in ten Torchbearers in the automotive
industry do the same, while just four in ten Torchbearer
consumer products enterprises do. This mirrors the
overall progress of those industries in moving to
business platforms.
At a minimum, decoding the economic value of data
sharing and establishing an enterprise-wide data
monetization strategy can help organizations decide
with whom to partner. Then organizations can focus
their efforts on engineering trust among key partners
in the ecosystem.
As organizations are learning, data is your currency.
Trust is the key to accessing more of it and also to
unlocking its full value.
“You have to choose:
What is your highest
value?…I’m all for
success…but we cannot
put success above trust.”
Marc Benioff, Chairman,
co-Chief Executive Officer,
and Founder of Salesforce33
The Torchbearers are integrating new modes
of monetization into their data strategies
Figure 19
Net worth
130%more
Pursuing data
monetization strategies
62%
27%
Torchbearers
Aspirationals

Action guide
How to share data in the platform era
1. Use data to refresh your business strategy
Be restless and look for deeper insights into customers,
markets, and competitors.
–
– Use data to identify new strategies, including those
that expand your partnership network.
–
– Digitally connect your enterprise from the outside in
and cognitively enable it from the inside out to create
market-making platforms.
–
– Use interactive tools to identify new events and
trends as they happen so you can reinvent yourself
over and over again.
2. Develop a data-sharing roadmap
Decide what data you are prepared to share and what
data you have to keep close to your chest.
–
– Architect your organization to be open, including
using open APIs with your partners.
–
– Create a blueprint of what proprietary data can be
shared, what value can be derived from that, and how
you can derive that value.
–
– Engineer your workflows for transparency so that you
can liberally and securely share data with partners
and customers.
3. Establish secure data exchange
Create security, transparency, and accountability for
data that runs through your business platforms, well
beyond your enterprise’s borders.
–
– Make each member of your C-suite accountable for
ecosystem-wide sharing of his or her organization’s
data.
–
– Build robust business platforms that enable
principled data sharing—both internally and
externally.
–
– Implement smart contracts that trigger the secure
sharing of fit-for-purpose data with network partners.
4. Build and keep trusted partnerships
Recognize each party’s role and understand the
rewards you can achieve through deep collaboration.
–
– Clearly quantify the value of teaming and investing in
business platforms.
–
– Agree to leverage each other’s network of networks
to access powerful new sources of data.
–
– Identify collective gaps where you and your partners
need to invest to hone your competitive edge.
5. Create a data monetization strategy
Recognize your data as one of the most valuable assets
your company has, and establish a monetization
strategy.
–
– Carefully quantify the value of data to all participants
in your ecosystem.
–
– Shape and scale your go-to-market model to leverage
the intrinsic value of the data.
–
– Become a data custodian—a trusted enterprise that
safeguards partners’ and customers’ data while
helping them monetize it.
other stages.

Conclusion
Return on trust
The Torchbearers have illuminated a new path to value
from data. They’ve shown how data can be utilized to
rebuild trust with customers and business partners
and, in so doing, create new economic value—a return
on trust.
The Torchbearers, who lead their peers in innovation,
performance, and mastering change, stand apart from
others in three areas:
Trust from your customers. Torchbearers are strength-
ening their relationships with customers by becoming
trusted custodians of personal data, demonstrating
transparency by revealing data about their offerings
and workflows, and using the trust advantage they’ve
earned to create differentiating business models.
Trust in your data. Torchbearers are instilling
confidence in their data and AI models enterprise wide.
That confidence is stimulating a culture of true data
believers and data-based decision makers. In turn,
it’s elevating the experiences they can create for
customers and partners along their value chains.
Trust across ecosystems. Torchbearers are taking
on the challenge that could shape their future—
learning how to share data on business platforms
without giving away their competitive edge. They’ve
turned the corner from amassing data to determining
how best to monetize it, including how to build
ecosystems to create new exponential value.
Trust, the Torchbearers understand, has for some
time been the missing factor in the value-from-data
equation. Trust, they realize, could be their sustainable
advantage.

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Reinventing your company with AI
Incumbents Strike Back
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Plotting the platform payoff
The CEO Perspective of the 19th Global
C-suite Study
The enterprise guide to closing the skills gap
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The end of the beginning
Unleashing the transformational power of GDPR
Acknowledgments
This year’s Global C-suite Study would not have been
possible without the insights and collaboration of
thousands of contributors. Our special thanks go out to:
Board, executive, and C-suite participants
Over 13,000 C-suite executives who participated
in one-hour or longer interviews.
External experts
Shivvy Jervis
Futurist, innovation strategist, and broadcaster
Professor Rita Gunther McGrath
Columbia Business School
Professor of Executive Education and
best-selling strategy author
Professor Amy Webb
NYU Stern School of Business
Quantitative futurist and founder and
CEO of the Future Today Institute
Professor Robert Wolcott
Kellogg School of Management
Co-founder and Chairman, The World Innovation
Network (TWIN Global)
IBMers across the world
Over 4,500 IBMers who engaged with our clients
to conduct interviews, summarize the results, and
contribute additional insights from work we do
with them.

Research methodology
The IBM Institute for Business Value, in cooperation
with Oxford Economics, interviewed 13,484 C-suite
executives from 98 countries and 20 industries. Our
3,819 face-to-face meetings and 9,665 live phone
interviews collected both quantitative and qualitative
responses. For these sessions, we deployed an
in-depth survey to uncover how organizations are
extracting value from data and exponential technol-
ogies to enable business innovation, expand customer
engagement and trust, and optimize their business
ecosystems.
Respondents in our study represent a balanced mix of
six C-suite roles: CEOs, CFOs, CHROs, CIOs, CMOs, and
COOs. Data collection was specified at the country and
industry levels to acquire a representative set of global
respondents.
Our analysis of survey results applied a variety of
statistical methods and practices to create regression
and correlational models. We used exploratory factor
analysis to develop response themes. We also used
IBM Watson AI technologies against thousands of
qualitative interview responses to conduct sentiment
analysis and classify study findings into narrative
themes. Then, IBM Watson Project Debater revealed
how the prevalent themes were viewed from multiple
perspectives.
We classified every participant into one of four stages.
The horizontal axis is driven by combined responses to
three questions: the extent to which an organization’s
data strategy is integrated with its business strategy;
the extent to which the C-suite recognizes the value of
data as a strategic asset; and the extent to which the
enterprise is aware of and understands the strategic
value of data.
The vertical axis is driven by three additional questions:
the degree to which an organization has met its expec-
tations for creating value from the strategic use of data;
the extent to which the enterprise can access, extract,
or link the data together; and the extent to which it can
create insights from data.
For this study, we asked respondents to do a self-
assessment on more than 100 aspects, including
financial performance versus industry peers. We
cross-validated responses by comparing two objective
financial measures—revenue growth and profitability—
where the information was publicly available. Our
analysis confirmed a high correlation between self-as-
sessed and actual performance, thereby lowering the
potential for distortion from a systemic “halo effect.”
In some parts of our analysis, our researchers
recognize that a simple reporting of absolute contrast
belied the true significance of performance differences.
So, to explore the magnitude of a given performance
difference in such cases, we report relative, rather 
than absolute, differences.
14% China
13% Asia Pacific
6% Japan
25% Europe
7% Middle East
28% North America
7% Latin America
100%
Respondents by region
16% Chief Executive Officers
16% Chief Financial Officers
16% Chief Human Resources
Officers
20% Chief Information Officers
16% Chief Marketing Officers
16% Chief Operations Officers
100%
Respondents by role

Notes and sources
1 Craft, Ethan Jakob. “5 Key Takeaways From
The 2019 Edelman Brand Trust Survey.” AdAge.
June 18, 2019. https://adage.com/article/
digital/5-key-takeaways-2019-edelman-brand-
trust-survey/2178646
2 Ellett, John. “B2B Buyers Don’t Trust Vendors—
And That Is A Huge Opportunity for Marketers.”
Forbes. October 10, 2018. https://www.forbes.
com/sites/johnellett/2018/10/10/
b2b-buyers-dont-trust-vendors-and-that-is-a-
huge-opportunity-for-marketers/#1616ea146a01
3 “2nd Annual ARF Privacy Study.” Advertising
Research Foundation. August 2019. https://cdn.
thearf.org/ARF_Knowledgebase/ARF%20
WhitePapers/2019-Privacy-Study.pdf 
4 Sterling, Greg. “Survey: 58% will share personal
data under the right circumstances.” Marketing
Land. June 20, 2018. https://marketingland.com/
survey-58-will-share-personal-data-under-the-
right-circumstances-242750 
5 Unpublished IBM Institute for Business Value
Consumer Survey. 2018.
6 “2019 Cost of a Data Breach Report.” IBM and
Ponemon Institute. July 2019. https://www.ibm.
com/security/data-breach
7 Martine, Kelly D., Abhishek Borah, and Robert
W. Palmatier. “Research: A Strong Privacy
Policy Can Save Your Company Millions.”
Harvard Business Review. February 15, 2018.
https://hbr.org/2018/02/research-a-strong-privacy-
policy-can-save-your-company-millions
8 Johnson, Lauren. “Why Nestlé is Doubling Down on
First-Party Data and Trust to Prepare for GDPR.”
Adweek. March 13, 2018. https://www.adweek.
com/digital/why-nestle-is-doubling-down-
on-first-party-data-and-trust-to-prepare-for-gdpr
9 Alibasa, Benedict. “Retail Giant Carrefour Saw
Sales Boost From Blockchain Tracking.” CoinDesk.
June 4, 2019. https://www.coindesk.com/
retail-giant-carrefour-saw-sales-boost-from-
blockchain-tracking
10 “Usage-based Insurance Market to hit $107bn by
2024.” Global Market Insights. December 3, 2018.
https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/
2018/12/03/1660531/0/en/Usage-based-
Insurance-Market-to-hit-107bn-by-2024-Global-
Market-Insights-Inc.html
11 “Platform for Accelerating the Circular Economy.”
World Economic Forum. October 16, 2019. https://
www.weforum.org/projects/circular-economy
12 “AB InBev joins the Foundation’s growing
Circular Economy 100 network.” Ellen Macarthur
Foundation. June 6, 2018. https://www.ellen-
macarthurfoundation.org/news/ab-inbev-joins-
the-foundatons-growing-circular-econo-
my-100-network
13 “Cameras that guess age and sex headed to
stores.” The Associated Press: Finance &
Commerce. April 23, 2019. https://finance-com-
merce.com/2019/04/cameras-that-guess-age-
and-sex-headed-to-stores
14 Ibid.
15 Unpublished IBM Institute for Business
Value Consumer Survey. 2018.
16 Cave, Dr. Stephen. “The ethical and political
questions raised by AI.” Ada Lovelace Institute.
January 28, 2019. https://www.adalovelacein-
stitute.org/the-ethical-and-political-
questions-raised-by-ai
17 Desjardins, Jeff. “Every Single Cognitive Bias in One
Infographic.” Visual Capitalist. September 25,
2017. https://www.visualcapitalist.com/
every-single-cognitive-bias
18 “Ethics Guidelines for Trustworthy AI.” European
Commission. April 8, 2019. https://ec.europa.eu/
digital-single-market/en/news/ethics-guidelines-
trustworthy-ai

19 Bellisimmo, Jay, Dr. Alessandro Curioni, Glenn
Finch, Mark Foster, et al. “The Cognitive Enterprise:
Reinventing your company with AI.” IBM Institute
for Business Value. February 2019. https://ibm.co/
cognitive-enterprise
20 “Incumbents Strike Back: Insights from the
Global C-suite Study.” IBM Institute for
Business Value. February 2018. https://ibm.co/
incumbents-strike-back
21 Yoffie, David B., Annabelle Gawer, and Michael A.
Cusumano. “A Study of More Than 250 Platforms
Reveals Why Most Fail.” Harvard Business Review.
May 29, 2019. https://hbr.org/2019/05/a-study-
of-more-than-250-platforms-reveals-why-
most-fail
22 Cusumano, Michael A., Annabelle Gawer, and David
B. Yoffie. The Business of Platforms: Strategy in the
Age of Digital Competition, Innovation, and Power.
July 2019.
23 Zhu, Feng, and Marco Iansiti. “Why Some Platforms
Thrive and Others Don’t.” Harvard Business Review.
January-February 2019. https://hbr.org/2019/01/
why-some-platforms-thrive-and-others-dont
24 Hsu, Jenny W. “Alibaba’s ‘Innovation Center’ Gives
Brands Edge in China.” Alizila. November 26, 2018.
https://www.alizila.com/alibaba-innovation-center-
gives-brands-an-edge-in-china 
25 “TradeLens adds major ocean carriers Hapag-Lloyd
and Ocean Network Express.” TradeLens blog. July
2, 2019. https://blog.tradelens.com/news/
press-releases/tradelens-continues-expansion-with-
addition-of-major-ocean-carriers-hapag-lloyd-
and-ocean-network-express
26 Ibid.
27 Ibid.
28 “Open banking and its APIs debut in Europe and the
U.K.” PR Newswire. April 6, 2018. https://www.
prnewswire.com/news-releases/open-banking-
and-its-apis-debut-in-europe-and-
the-uk-300625650.html
29 Diamond, Sarah, Nick Drury, Anthony Lipp, et al.
“Banking on the Platform Economy.” IBM Institute
for Business Value. September 2019. ibm.co/
platform-banking
30 Ibid.
31 “we.trade: Helping companies trade seamlessly
with IBM Blockchain.” IBM. https://www.ibm.com/
case-studies/wetrade-blockchain-fintech-
trade-finance
32 Ibid.
33 Gold, Hadas. “Trust is the new buzzword in Davos.
Here’s why.” CNN Business. January 25, 2019.
https://edition.cnn.com/2019/01/25/business/
trust-companies-davos/index.html

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