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Create a modern culture of data

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Data has never been more important.

The more we understand what's happening right now, the faster we can adapt, and the better we can anticipate future disruptions and opportunities.

Companies that invested in digital tools, advanced analytics, and data literacy have not only navigated the COVID-19 pandemic more successfully—they've empowered more flexible, resilient cultures.


Chief Data Officers say culture change is the number one inhibitor to progress.

Gartner’s 3rd Annual CDO Survey, 2018


Data, tools, and technology are nothing without people. People make the culture. And culture makes all the difference.

A modern culture of data is one of experimentation and innovation, where people have the power to accelerate business outcomes with rapid insights. For most companies, that’s a profound shift, so we’ve broken it down to five elements—starting with the vision.


Our five modern culture of data elements

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Bold vision

To build a successful culture of data, you need to know where you’re going, how you’ll get there, and why it’s important.

Aligned to the overall corporate strategy—and supported by executive leadership—your bold vision establishes a unifying sense of purpose. Shared goals and objectives across functional areas reinforce the emphasis on collaboration and behavioral change.

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Access & transparency

Make data available to everyone in your organization with an integrated technology architecture and infrastructure. Create flexible, user-friendly systems that allow people to analyze data when and how they need to. Your business needs a holistic data foundation that empowers people to see, trust, and use data.

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Guardianship

Establish trust in data, tools, and practices—so people can engage with confidence. Data guardianship includes components of data governance, as well as ethics, privacy, security, and regulatory compliance.

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Data literacy

Develop the mindsets and skills that drive action. Empower your people to uncover insights, ask questions, think critically, and challenge conclusions with data and experimentation.

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Ways of working

Lastly, update your operating model and organizational structure with processes, roles, and responsibilities that support your vision. Upskill and recruit talent, incentivize behaviors, and embed analytics in daily activities. This final element of the modern culture of data wraps around all the others. When data informs every decision as a matter of course, the culture thrives.


Let's get started

It’s never too soon to start modernizing your data culture. In 2018, Forrester Research found that insight-driven organizations grow seven times faster than global GDP—or 27% annually. Considering that only a small minority of organizations have achieved the vision of analytics at scale, the ability to ask and answer better questions is an invaluable competitive advantage.

To jumpstart your transformation, Slalom can help you assess your organization's maturity across the five elements of our modern culture of data framework. We offer a range of offerings from strategy workshops to deep-dive assessments, capability definition, and co-creation.


A lot of companies can pull reports, but the biggest value comes when you embed insights into a person’s day-to-day way of working.

Tom Perry

Senior Director, Data, Insights & Integration at Elsevier


Today, data is at the forefront of organizational strategy and decision-making. 

Whether you’re looking to enable real-time insights, build intelligent digital products, or leverage AI to accelerate your business, you need a modern approach that adapts at the speed of technology. We can help your team achieve your goals—and then keep going.


Microsoft & Slalom

For more than two decades, we’ve delivered innovation side by side with Microsoft, designing and deploying the solutions that allow big ideas to have an even bigger impact on our customers—and theirs. 

From global retailers to world-changing nonprofits, from tech giants to specialty restaurants, we’re reimagining the modern workplace to enable everyone on the planet to achieve more—and we’re doing it together.

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Let’s solve together.