May 2026
Intermediate
8 pages
21m
English
article
Data Transformation Is the CEO's Business
by Barbara Wixom, Ogi Redzic, Brandon Hootman, Joaquin Rodriguez, Gabriele Piccoli, Cynthia Beath
Overview
A multiyear data transformation project at Caterpillar that has made the company AI-ready provides an exemplary case for what leadership commitment to such a technology project involves. CEOs must go beyond communicating abstract support, by setting a tangible, strategic business goal that the transformation will support; giving teams realistic time horizons and adequate resources; and assigning meaningful, instrumental roles to members of the leadership team.
Become an O’Reilly member and get unlimited access to this title plus top books and audiobooks from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers, thousands of courses curated by job role, 150+ live events each month,
and much more.
Read now
Unlock full access
More than 5,000 organizations count on O’Reilly
O’Reilly covers everything we've got, with content to help us build a world-class technology community, upgrade the capabilities and competencies of our teams, and improve overall team performance as well as their engagement.Julian F.
I wanted to learn C and C++, but it didn't click for me until I picked up an O'Reilly book. When I went on the O’Reilly platform, I was astonished to find all the books there, plus live events and sandboxes so you could play around with the technology.Addison B.
I’ve been on the O’Reilly platform for more than eight years. I use a couple of learning platforms, but I'm on O'Reilly more than anybody else. When you're there, you start learning. I'm never disappointed.Amir M.
I'm always learning. So when I got on to O'Reilly, I was like a kid in a candy store. There are playlists. There are answers. There's on-demand training. It's worth its weight in gold, in terms of what it allows me to do.