Data Culture - by Shorful Islam (Paperback)

About the Book

Navigate the practicalities of building and nurturing a data culture that is right for your organization with this hands-on guide.

Book Synopsis

SHORTLISTED: Business Book Awards 2025 - People, Culture & Management

Organizations often start their data journey by either procuring the technology or hiring the people. However, without an effective data-driven culture in place, they can struggle to derive value from their investments.

Data Culture explores how data leaders can develop and nurture a data-driven culture tailored to their organization's needs. It outlines the types of data leadership and teams needed and the key building blocks for success, such as team recruitment, building and training, leadership, process, behavioural change management, developing, sustaining and measuring a data culture, company values and everyday decision making. It also explores the nuances of how different types of data cultures work with different types of companies, what to avoid and the differences between building a data culture from scratch and changing an existing data culture from within.

With this hands-on guide, senior data leader Shorful Islam takes readers through how to successfully establish or change a data culture, sharing his expertise in behavioural change psychology and two decades of experience in fostering data culture in organizations. Supported throughout by real-world examples and cases, this will be an essential read for all data leaders and anyone involved in developing a data-driven organizational culture.

Review Quotes

"Shorful Islam is a rare leader. He mentors naturally without even thinking about it. Data Culture is a must for anyone needing to get their business on board with making being 'data-driven' who they are."-- "Carolyn Bondi, Founder, The Thread Team and Co-Chair, DMA Customer Data Council"

"Shorful Islam encapsulates his exceptional experience, skills and wisdom in this book. Anyone who operates with or near data knows how much data culture matters to effectiveness, and how little has been written about it. The observations in Data Culture are gems."-- "Dominic Cameron, Executive Chairman, CovertSwarm Ltd"

"Shorful Islam has a unique ability to make the complex simple. In true form, Data Culture is a highly accessible guide with practical tips and compelling examples to help make building a data culture an achievable goal. It is a must read for data leaders who aspire to increase their influence and maximise the impact of their role. It is also highly relevant for C-Suite leaders who want to cut through the noise and harness data to improve business performance."-- "Chris Daplyn, Global Chief Executive, MMT Digital"

"Shorful Islam shares his unique perspective on data leadership combined with insights on the organizational and human psychology of change. His experiences are invaluable learnings for any leader driving organizational transformation."-- "Sanjeevan Bala, Global Chief Data & AI Officer, ITV"

"An essential exploration of the transformative power of data within organizations. This book is a blueprint for building a data-centric organization. Shorful Islam articulates why merely having analysts and the latest technology falls short if the organizational culture does not embrace data at its core."-- "Annelies Jansen, Founder, Equalsthree"

"Most organisations aspire to be data-driven, but this doesn't happen just because you have data being collected somewhere in the building. The expectations and behaviours about how an organization uses its data to become wiser and more successful depend on the data culture that it fosters, across the business and especially in its leadership. Data Culture explores the critical contribution that data culture makes to success and how to create and foster a healthy data culture that makes data central to decision making. As data availability expands exponentially, the culture around its use becomes ever more important to understand and Shorful Islam's experience across academia, public and private sector work makes him an expert guide."-- "Stephen Woodford, CEO, Advertising Association"

"The more the world becomes more connected, the more it generates a blizzard of data every second. Many organisations are operating in a state of informed bewilderment. They know everything but understand little. Shorful Islam has used his many years of hard-won wisdom as a data leader, and deep knowledge of psychology to create this much needed guide to successfully navigate developing a strong data culture. Data Culture will help data leaders develop the right culture for their organization."-- "Darren Savage, Honorary Teaching Fellow and Marketer in Residence, Lancaster University"

About the Author

Shorful Islam is CEO of Be Data Solutions, Founder of Subatomic Analytics and Data and Behavioural Science Advisor to OutThink. With over 20 years of experience, Islam has helped some of the world's largest companies with their data strategies and has led data analytics teams at a wide range of organizations. Islam is experienced in building effective data cultures within organizations, allowing data analysts and data scientists to thrive.