CEO's believe in organization data initiatives more than those actually working with the data?

Source: CIO.com

http://www.cio.com/article/2873612/data-analytics/ceos-have-rosier-view-of-data-initiatives-than-rest-of-management.html

I chose this article because while reading through the article I was actually laughing at some of the survey results.

47 percent of CEOs believe all employees have access to the data they need, compared with only 27 percent of other survey respondents. Additionally, 43 percent of CEOs believe relevant data are captured and made available in real time, while only 29 percent of other respondents feel the same.

53 percent of CEOs think data utilization has made decision-making less hierarchical and has empowered employees, but only 36 percent of other respondents feel the same way.

Fifty-one percent of CEOs feel data availability has improved employee engagement, satisfaction and retention, but only 35 percent of the rest feel the same way; 58 percent of CEO believe data deployment has improved the quality and speed of execution, but only 47 percent of the rest agree.

The authors of the article point out a couple possibilities for this type of gap.  First they state that this could be a function of those that report to the CEO misrepresenting the success of their data architecture plans.  The other option they offer is that those closer to the data itself are going to know it's strengths and weaknesses better than those further away from the data.  Because of this those closer to the data will be much more critical causing them to be more pessimistic about the success of their data architecture plans.

In my organization we recently implemented a Business Intelligence solution.  These systems are designed to help organizations make better informed decisions by correlating data from multiple systems.  In my organization this could help us better understand who is buying tickets, what are they buying in our shops and are they donating money while here or after they leave.  These systems are extremely expensive due to the time it takes system implementers to analyze the back end data and determine how it relates to data found in other sources.

Because of this, I could very much see how the first thought in the article is possible.  Spending a significant portion of your budget on a system this complex could cause stress for those that suggested the system to management.  BI systems, when source data is available, accurate and consistent can allow for very complex comparisons.  When the data is not available, or accurate or consistent, this can make it impossible to analyze.  Middle managers in this case are going to be doing their best to paint this "rosy" picture to management that their investment is providing the value that is expected, which could cause upper management to believe that all is well with their data plans while this is not the case.