Maria Tarasidou, Global Data Program Manager at Facebook, argues that legacy companies should follow the example of big tech to succeed with data-driven business transformation
Enterprises are increasingly open to investing in new data-driven technologies that are shaping the future of business. But as Facebook Global Data Program Manager Maria Tarasidou argues in this week’s Business of Data podcast, technology doesn’t drive business transformation by itself.
“You have to also be prepared to bring in the right people with the right mindset,” she says. “Everyone needs to understand data. Everybody needs to use it. Everybody needs to be able to go back and retrieve and extract the data they that need in the way that they need it and visualize it.”
In recent years, many companies established hubs that are separate from their legacy business to kickstart the data strategies or innovation projects. While this can make sense in the short-term, Tarasidou notes that data-driven ways of working must become embedded across an entire organization before meaningful transformations can occur.
“What happens in big tech companies is that there’s no role that is actually a Data Analyst role,” she says. “Everyone is an analyst.”
This chimes with the stories we hear from our wider data and analytics community. It’s those companies that invest in data literacy and integrate data-driven ways of working into the roles of staff across the business which get the most value out of data and analytics.
Maria Tarasidou, Global Data Program Manager, Facebook“If we say, ‘In 10 years do you expect for the current Data Analyst role to exist?’ I would say, ‘No’”

Tarasidou predicts that integrating data with business processes in this way will become so widespread within a decade that Data Analyst roles as we know them will cease to exist.
“If you want to force it, you bring in the right people and the right talent and you educate the business accordingly,” she suggests. “But it’s going to happen. It’s where we’re heading. This is the age of information.”
Enterprises that want to make the most of futuristic technologies such as the ‘data mesh’ must ensure their staff are committed to upskilling and changing how they work to drive successful data-driven business transformations.
Key Takeaways

Technology by itself is not enough. Executives that focus their investments on shiny new tools will not succeed in driving meaningful business transformations
Data literacy fuels digital transformation. Enterprises should focus on empowering staff to work with data efficiently to accelerate their data-driven business transformations
Data skills are the future of business. The Data Analyst role could one day be phased out as data analysis skills become an integral part of all jobs in the workforce of the future