Introduction
This week I’m joined by Christal Bemont who is the CEO for Talend.
We discuss why data is so critical to businesses. Christal shares her perspective on the massive broken issue related to data and the role trust plays. She outlines how to build trust in data and how a CEO should be looking at data. Lastly, Christal shares her perspective on how using technology increases confidence in data-backed decisions.
Speaker Profiles
Christal Bemont Twitter: https://twitter.com/ChristalBemont
Christal Bemont LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christalbemont/
Talend: https://www.talend.com
Audio File
Featured Hashtags
#CIO #CEO #Data #Leadership #Trust #CxOitk
Podcast Transcript
Tim Crawford 0:01
Companies are looking for new ways to transform their business. Technology plays a critical role in this transformation. Speed and innovation in both technology and thinking are key to this shift. Hello, and welcome to the Cxo in the Know podcast, where I take a provocative but pragmatic look at the intersection of business and technology through the lens of leading CxO executives. I’m your host Tim Crawford, a CIO and strategic advisor at Aboa. This week, I’m joined by Christal Bemont, who is the CEO for Talend. We discuss why data is so critical to businesses. shares her perspective on the massive broken issue related to data and the role trust plays, she outlines how to build trust in data and how a CEO should be looking at data. Lastly, shares her perspective on how using technology increases confidence in data-backed decisions. , welcome to the program today.
Christal Bemont 1:00
Hi, thanks for having me.
Tim Crawford 1:01
So, Christal Bemont, you’re the CEO of Talend, and maybe for our audience, we can get started by having you just talk a little bit about who you are and a little bit about your company too.
Christal Bemont 1:13
Well, Christal Bemont, as you said, and I’ve really just joined Talend in January, coming from a long history and career at SAP Concur, where coming out of the role most recently as the chief revenue officer, but spent 15 amazing years at a company that I just learned a tremendous amount of thinking about the customer and things about technology and how you really solve critical business problems, and brought that over to Talend and thought no better place than where the intersection of everyday conversation sits, which is with data, and that’s really what Talend is focused on, which is helping organizations make sure they can make the best use out of their data and ensure that they can make really critical business decisions. And that’s how I got here.
Tim Crawford 2:00
That’s great, and I’m so glad that we were able to make the time to have you on the program. You mentioned data, and data is just so critical to companies and business operations. Maybe we could start with your perspective on some of the issues that companies are facing with data. I mean, there are many of them, but from your perspective, how do you look at that?
Christal Bemont 2:24
You’re so right. It’s fairly complex, but I’ll kind of break it down into a couple categories. In a way, this is a little bit of a blessing and a curse kind of scenario, and and what I mean by that is if you think about all the different types of sources of data, the way that people are collecting data these days, the way that there’s IoT and edge devices, and really the need to have access to information is prevalent, and that causes for a great opportunity. It makes for a great opportunity, but it also causes challenges in that gathering all of that data, making sure that it’s accessible. And just to give you a little reference or data point, about 50% of companies have challenges accessing data. And it’s when you think about how much data is in an organization, the big problem is people knowing where it’s at and what they have, and that’s that’s half of it. And then the second part of it is the quality of the data. Having a lot of data, as you could probably appreciate, if someone just dumped a bunch of data on your desk and said, “Well, here’s everything, the question is, “Oh my goodness, what do I do with that? And can I trust it? Is it good quality data? So, data is so critical, and it is the thing that fuels and powers the businesses and critical business decisions more now than ever, where people are looking at things differently, and just the completeness of it and the quality of it is it continues to be a challenge.
Tim Crawford 3:49
And you know, to that point, one of the things I know you’ve talked about is how there’s this massive broken issue related to data, whether it’s as you mentioned, just the quality of data, the trust around data, and I know we’re going to talk a little bit about this in our conversation. But maybe you could touch on your perspective of of what you mean by this massive broken issue related to data.
Christal Bemont 4:14
Yeah, I think the best way I would describe it is that right now there are lots of different ways that you can ensure that you’re accessing, as I said, as much data as you can possibly get your hands on. I think the the big issue that we see is if you think about maybe yourself, for example, when you sit down and someone has given you a report or someone who gives you a new dashboard, it’s almost without a doubt. I bet you almost every person can relate to this. When you see it, the very first thing you’re trying to do, outside of looking at maybe what it’s trying to inform you of, is you’re really looking for issues. You’re looking to see: Is this? Do I believe this? Do I believe this information? The problem that I think is is pervasive, and I do not believe that enough attention has been paid to this. Is that defining integrity and quality of data is okay? That happens today in some ways. That happens in the back office when people are pulling data together to make sure it’s the right sources, it’s formatted, it’s complete. That there’s so many times when that goes to a business user that they go, wait a minute, that does not seem right to me. There’s something wrong, and quite frankly, they’re spending a lot of time trying to figure out if they can trust the data. When I say that, or when I you may have heard me mention that, you know, at times it’s really the fact that how does a person who’s sitting in the chair of making a decision at any level in the organization and across any line of business, when they’re looking at that data, even if they’ve seen it 100 times before, how do they know a job didn’t fail the night before, and that the stuff that they think they’re looking at is is accurate data to make a decision on? And so I believe that the the thing that’s most broken right now is the fact that the very people who need to use this data to make critical decisions don’t have the visibility right now to qualify and to quantify how much they can trust the data that’s in front of them, and how would they measure that? What would that be based on? And it just seems a bit odd to me, given the fact that how important this is, how much money we spend on gathering data and massaging the data and using the data to make really critical decisions, and yet we have no way to measure it. There’s not a single person that can say how healthy is my data today. So that’s just a situation that I find interesting, given how important it
Tim Crawford 6:33
is, and hence the broken issue related to data.
Christal Bemont 6:38
Exactly.
Tim Crawford 6:39
So let’s pick apart these pieces because I mean there’s a lot to unpack there, so maybe we could pick apart each of those separately. And I do want to spend some quality time talking about trust because it’s so integral to data. But before we get to trust, let me maybe take it up a level and and let’s talk about the enterprise and everything they need to be successful. Do they have everything they need to be successful? Meaning, do they have the right tools? Do they have the right concepts, the right constructs, the right thinking, or organizing, or culture to be successful? And if not, where are the gaps?
Christal Bemont 7:19
I think the very thing that you just outlined, in terms of all the different aspects of it-the right culture, the right mindset, the right tools, the right people, the right specialists-these are things that people, that all organizations strive for. Some can afford to fit to that, and some just never will be able to have completely everything that they would need. I think it’s a challenge that, and you know that organizations are required, quite frankly, to if you look at the stacks of technology that’s out there, there’s a lot of different things, and understanding what one utility or service does versus another, it’s a very convoluted environment right now. I think it’s it’s overly complicated for organizations, in my opinion, that’s in discerning what they need, and then the level of expertise that they need to be able to take the data and really transform it into something meaningful that a business user can use. I also feel is still overly complicated the the types of people that you need to be able to hire with the expertise and with AI and machine learning and some other technology, that helps and that’ll continue to expand the horizon and make it easier. The reality is, just with those technologies, as I just mentioned, they’re only as good as what you can pump in there, and it’s kind of garbage in, garbage out. You know, they’re only capable of doing so much with what they have that’s being ported into them. So I think for an organization right now, if you can put a team around it, and we see a lot of that, we see now titles like Chief Data Officer (VDO) and we see big digital transformation projects, and we see organizations spending a lot of time and money and effort on putting everything in place and buying the tools and finding the resources. Not everyone has the opportunity to do that or can afford to do that. And there’s certainly, as you look at all of those different variables, that’s a big undertaking. And so, I think it’s hard right now. I think all of the vendors have a responsibility to make sure they continue to make that easier and easier for organizations. I think it’s still a little bit overcomplicated.
Tim Crawford 9:24
Is this something that starts with your executive and then moves down into the organization, or do you think that gap is one that we really need the expertise around data, either in the form of a CDO? And some have argued that I, being one of them, have argued that a CDO is, in some ways, can be seen as filling a gap that maybe your CIO should have been filling. So maybe you could add a little bit of context there from your perspective.
Christal Bemont 9:56
Yeah, it is such an interesting perspective or discussion to. Take because I I don’t know that there’s one that I subscribe to right now. I think that there’s a fundamental principle that I subscribe to is the role of data. And even if you look at IDC has a report that talks about Gen Z, so it’s a generation data, and they talk about how everyone will have a role. Everyone will have data in their job description or title, and everyone’s really a data manager, and I do believe that heart and soul. Like I just believe data is at at the heart of everything.
Tim Crawford 10:28
Sure.
Christal Bemont 10:28
And so everyone’s role is data. It’s just I guess to what degree, and the one thing I do believe is if data is going to be an important driver, who’s the one person that at least is making sure that it’s getting to the state that you feel comfortable, you run your business on it, and so whether that’s a CDO or whether it’s someone as a CIO, I think that’s debatable. But I do think that the fact is we all play a role in data, and even when you think about like crowdsourcing, I believe that what the future will really be-we we see this today already ourselves-is the ability to be able to put your stamp on it that you’ve approved it and that you put your vote in that it’s good data or good data set things that really put the user or business people and different folks in the organization put their their stamp on it. So I think everyone will touch it. Who ends up owning it ultimately or who should is debatable, but I do believe this it should be a strategy around how it’s going to get done and who’s going to be responsible for it, and then who that is is is probably up to the organization. But it has to be a very intentional strategy, not just what tools are they going to use, but really what philosophy they have and and the strategy around making sure that all of this is only really matters because they’re trying to have great outcomes to avoid risk or to provide an opportunity. So, what puts a company in a position to make sure they can do that in the best way possible? So, I think across the org for sure.
Tim Crawford 11:56
I like how you’ve talked about two points there. I mean, many points that I like, but two I wanted to highlight. One is that everyone creates data, everyone touches data, everyone is consumer and a creator of data, but also that the importance of having that strategy around your data can’t be that haphazard. And to your earlier point about trust of data, and so maybe this is a good place to kind of delve into that trust aspect because data is only as good as your degree of trust of it, and so some might argue that well, that’s an accuracy issue. Okay, well, maybe so, but one of the aspects of data is trust. I mean, what is your perspective on the importance of trust, and maybe you could talk to some ways that that you’ve seen success and how companies are thinking about data and building trust into how they think about data.
Christal Bemont 12:52
Yeah, I think this is one that is an evolving topic, and again, I think it’s one that’s fairly underserved in being literal and being precise about it, and what I mean by that is, as I mentioned, there’s I think there’s a lot of conversations going on about how important quality of data is and integrity of data, and the aspects by which those are defined today are things like what you were talking about: are do we have missing pieces of data, or the format of it, or how is it structured, and the semantics and so forth? And those are all those are to me table stakes, like baseline. The word trust is really important because that’s something that means something different. And I think when you separate those two, you start to say, well, how do you define trust? I believe that there will be in the future there there need to be parameters and some guidelines on this is what it means to trust data, and it could be specific to organizations in terms of what are industry standards of what are the different things you look across beyond the just the simple making sure that all the data sets are there and that they’re formatted correctly. How do you really trust it? And that those are some of the things that you can start to to do. Some you have some algorithms against make sure that you have users participation. I think there’s a lot of ways that you can put that in place, but here’s really where it comes down. So I’ll give you an example of imagine this how important this is. One of our our customers, Uno’s, they’re the United Network for Organ Sharing, and it’s a private nonprofit organization. So they manage the nation’s organ transplant system. So the amount of accuracy and trust you think about you need to have because they’re matching donors and recipients, and time and accuracy is of utmost importance. And so, for example, going from like 18 hours to three hours to match and to have the confidence that you’re going to match the right data. You’re going to be able to do it timely, so that trust and speed is really important. Some of the baseline components of what I talked about before of being able to match up data and have confidence that you’ve done the right thing-that’s someone’s life at stake. That’s saving a life, and that is really critical. Now, not every organization has a situation where they’re saving lives. But if you can take that to the next step, if you could just say, okay, so that’s a great baseline, and those are things that are amazing things that are happening today. But if you could take that one step further and say, okay, that’s great because we know the quality is there and we know that the speed is there. But how do we make sure? I’ll give you a great example that, like, what if a job fails, like I mentioned, and that same the same way that you’re matching up that data, what happens if this happens all the time? It happened to me the other day. I was in looking at a report, and all of a sudden, some web traffic data looked like it just completely went off the charts. And I thought, oh no, did something happen? What I’ve been looking at this report now, it must be that something happened with our web traffic. Well, it wasn’t anything at all like that. It was that someone changed something, and then a job ran, and it completely changed the outcome of the of the report. But I had to go figure that out. So the idea that you can take, you build these things, you put the pipes in place, you you assure that the quality’s there, you’re doing all the quality checks. But these are moments matter, and these are where something that worked a minute ago, something may have changed, and the idea that someone is notified and says to them, “Hey, something is wrong. This no longer looks the way that it did, and now gives you something tangible to see.
Christal Bemont 16:15
I think there’s definitely something there that is important, and that’s kind of the difference between making sure that you have all the quality, but then you also can say, here’s that I know that the data that I’m using today I can trust it because I’m seeing that it still meets the criteria of what I believed even hours ago. So that’s just an example of of some of the things that we’re seeing and some of the customers and how and how we’re seeing quality and speed be so important to them.
Tim Crawford 16:45
Sure, and there’s another piece that you’re highlighting, which is there are varying degrees to how you trust. It’s not black and white. It’s not binary, where you either trust it or you don’t. But there might be factors that impact that data that might change the data, which might then change your degree of trust. Or I think of the relationships. So the relationship between you and I. So Crystal might trust Tim for certain things or certain data components, but maybe not for others. And vice versa, I might trust you for certain data components, but maybe not for others. I guess the point I’m trying to make is trust is something that is incredibly complicated, and there are other factors that will come in over time. It’s not just a binary yes or no, or that it stays constant.
Christal Bemont 17:37
I think that’s absolutely right. I think the other part there that you’re touching on, but just to be precise, is where that has been able to be measured before usually has has resided with the people that are actually transforming or collecting the data. That sits with a data engineer, someone who’s managing the data. And when you start to think about, like you said earlier, every person creates data and every person uses data, and we’re all consumers of it. But when it actually that trust and that that ability to not only define it and have it be measurable in a subjective way that’s important to either the data set or the company, when that ability to not only identify it but then carry or travel with the information to the business user to say this is what we would consider trust to look like and carries with because a lot of times the people the very people that are trying to use it use the information to make decisions or or inform their business reinstrument their business they actually have no idea how would you even measure? I have I have no perspective on it whatsoever, and they’re the people that need it probably the most.
Tim Crawford 18:47
Sure.
Christal Bemont 18:47
So I think it’s that visibility. It’s it’s first having it, and then two giving it to the right people to make sure it’s in the right hands.
Tim Crawford 18:55
And let’s talk about putting it in the right hands, and talk about creating that trust. So, as a CEO, there are a number of things that you get, and I think of you’re the CEO of a publicly traded company. There are certain financials you want to make sure that they’re absolutely accurate, and those financials, it’s pretty clear as to what they need to be or or what you need to report on, for example. And I’m not asking specifically for talent here, but just in general, as a CEO, you want to have trust and stability in understanding that data and ensure that it is accurate because there’s a lot writing on that data in terms of decisions you make in the business, in the direction it takes, as well as how you communicate the state of your business. How do you build that system of trust or build that context around data? How does a CEO kind of get involved in that, or what is the role of the CEO in that?
Christal Bemont 19:59
It is something. Probably that maybe varies a little bit across organizations, but I again I think it goes to the heart of one of probably the most important conversations and decisions and baselines that probably needs to be made because your whole business is is the way you instrument your business informs everything hangs off of it. Everything else that you’re going to do from that point is probably if not 100% but it’s probably very much guided by the way that you think about data and the way that you organize it in terms of the things that are important to your business. And so, I think the role of the CEO is a really critical one to ensure that the philosophy of how we’re going to, as you said, look at data and measure data and what we’re going to use it for, that it is something that comes from where you’re at and where you’re trying to go, and I think that there are a lot of different ways to approach it. Certainly, in terms of like we were talking about the different roles within an organization, a lot of different ways that you can manage the data, but I think without having a specific direct, here’s what great looks like for our organization in terms of how we leverage data, our philosophy of data, and and how we’re going to use it across the business to make decisions. I think those are really critical components to be laid out by the executive level team and the CEO, of course, having a big voice in that, and I think every person within the organization should have the connective tissue to it. Why are these things important, and how are we ensuring that? When we look at it, we all speak the same language. We see it in a way that allows us to be informed, and I just see so many organizations where they spend time and they’re pulling data that presents many different pictures, which that’s good in a way, but not when you’re looking at the same set of data and you’re really just if you’re spending more time trying to figure out if you if if the data’s right or debating whether the data is right than you are in using it in an effective way, that is not good. No. So and I see a lot of that in organizations. I feel like a lot of it is just debating whether it’s good data. That’s scary. That is just a. It is scary. It is scary, but it does happen. And you know, it’s so interesting because I was talking to one of our customers. I was talking to the CIO, and I said it must be terribly frustrating because here you’ve done all of this work, and you they had a lot of resources dedicated. This is a very tight practice that they had, and they spent a lot of time and they they did a lot of work to make sure that the data was certainly had the quality, completeness, and quality. And when they would give it to a user, they would I would say, how many times does then someone come back to you and say, I don’t know if I trust this, and they’re like all the time. I said, “Wouldn’t it be nice if we could that trust score that you have, you could just send it along with that report to that person, so they already know that it’s done. And they were like, “Oh my gosh, it’s one of those things where, you know, it’s on both sides. There’s definitely the need for people to have an order of how it’s going to be used, but at some point you’ve got to define kind of your lanes and know that all the right checks and balances are there, and then do the thing that you’re trying to in the end, which is use it effectively. And I just feel like a lot of time is spent on things that are not those things.
Tim Crawford 23:16
Sure, and there are a lot of things that the CEO is contending with, and I I want to shift gears a little bit and talk about leadership too, because I think that’s an important piece of this. It’s not just about data, but it’s also about leadership. And I know that one of the things you have talked about in the past is the need to create a leadership culture where people can feel like they can be their authentic self. Maybe you could share a little bit of that perspective with the audience.
Christal Bemont 23:45
Yeah, it’s something that when I mentioned where I came from, that really was ingrained in my my prior life and the value of uniqueness, the value of not trying to conform individuals or conform people to a certain way of thinking that the value that I’ve seen and the importance that I place on the what is great in bringing very diverse, very different thinking people together, and the outcome when that happens is amazing because it just challenges norms and it challenges thinking. And I’m a big challenger and kind of innovators to limit type of person, so I subscribe to that. In that, what made us successful leading up to now is not necessarily the thing that will make us successful in the future. And so, just having a group of individuals-one that when you set a rail that way and say, “I encourage authenticity. I want you to show up as yourself. One, I think you get the best of people. I think people have comfort and security, and can be transparent and honest. And if people think you they need to say a certain thing or act or what, however, behave in a certain way, of course, conduct themselves appropriately. But if they’re trying so. Hard to be like what they think everyone wants them to be. I just don’t think for someone to think that’s good. I don’t think you get the best outcome, but I don’t think you get the best from someone. And so I really lean into that, and I’m very expressive about making sure people know I want them for who they are, and I want constructive feedback and input, and I want us to think and challenge each other. That’s where you get amazing people together to do amazing things.
Tim Crawford 25:25
I love that. I think that is incredibly important. And you’ve talked about compassionate leadership in the past too. And one of the factors that often gets brought up in some of these conversations, and I think you could provide a real unique perspective, is kind of sharing your thoughts on women in technology, and specifically in senior leadership roles. I mean, how do you look at that, and what guidance would you give to others that are thinking about that?
Christal Bemont 25:52
It goes right to the diversity and authenticity. I like to have a group of people that have had different experiences, that have different viewpoints, and whether it’s gender or any type of diverse environment, I think always makes for a better outcome. And so I very much lean into that. As I said, I look at what are the skills and the mindset of someone that can serve the role or solve the problems that we have. That’s the very first thing. So it does not matter about looking at gender per se. And a great example of that is when I came into Talent a few months ago. I had a CRO role, a chief revenue officer role, and a chief customer officer role that was open. And I thought, wow, well, that’s a big gap. So right away, I started thinking about who are the people that I know that can do this best, and I was thinking about the attributes of the role. And two individuals came up that I had in my network, and I talked to them, and they were all on board once I talked about the opportunity. But what was interesting and a little surprising to me because I didn’t think about it at the time was it became something that a lot of people talked about, and and it was about the fact that all three of us were women and going to be senior level executives at Talend. And I thought, huh, I didn’t even think about that. I was first thing I was thinking about was these are brilliant people that can solve these problems. Now the beautiful thing about it is since then because my realization I’ve come a little bit along on this journey because I didn’t realize that it was it was honestly such a big topic and the fact that it’s a topic that’s a problem so we should figure out a way to make sure it’s not a topic in the future just like many other diversity and inclusion type of subjects so it’s one of those things that I think I now feel like I want to play an active role in making sure that people from a technology background, and I think that sometimes people limit themselves in what they think is possible because of either where they came from, their upbringing or otherwise, or their schooling, their education, their experience, or for any number of reasons, and I just think it’s important to dispel those myths. Those things are contributing factors, but they’re not the reason why you should or could do something. So I think I’m kind of on this journey now to think about how to help make sure that people don’t self-limit. There’s a lot of opportunity here. We just need to, I think, let people know what’s possible and make sure they know how to get there and to support them. So, for me, it’s been a little bit of a journey for myself that I’ve been on, and just in this latest experience.
Tim Crawford 28:35
That’s great, great words of wisdom. We’re going to have to leave it right there for this episode, but Christal, I really appreciate you taking the time and sharing your perspective on data and leadership and women in technology. And I agree with you. I wish we didn’t have to have this conversation, but until that point, I want to be part of that conversation and advocate for an inclusive environment. So, all the more power to you! Thanks again for being part of the episode.
Christal Bemont 29:03
Thank you, Tim. It was a pleasure.
Tim Crawford 29:06
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