What is Datent?

Datent is startup, a community series of data newsletters focused on data transformations and data and change.

Datent Newsletters

You’re currently on our substack which is the archive of all our newsletters.

Intentional Data Essays

A space for exploring data beyond the surface with long view articles (e.g. Data Literacy Through Time) to break away from the hype, cross-discipline writing (e.g. a series on Data Tipping Points) to learn from other domains and philosophical pieces (e.g. Why Data) to get under the skin of this profession that I love so much.

Transformation Tools, Tips and Tricks

Support for all the data intrapreneurs, leaders and change makers out there. The goal is to make your lives easier with practical advice and frameworks on data transformation and change, links to plenty of external resources.

Datent Updates

Less regular (max monthly) updates on Datent the startup and commmunity as it grows and evolves together with a summary of all our writing and best of what we’ve read since the last update. Subscribe just to this one if you want to minimise your emails.

Datent the Startup

Datent is an early stage startup devoted to partnering leaders and emerging leaders of data transformations and data communities. You can read more about why Datent launched here and find out about our services on our main website here.

Datent the Community

We believe there is a missing community for data strategists, changemakers, evangelists, community leads. Everyone involved in making organisations more data-driven. We have big plans here and will update you as we go.

Making this your newsletter

Choosing the topics

This might sound obvious but I don’t write for me - I write for my readers. If there is a particular data challenge or topic you’d like my views on then let me know.

Email me (benny@datent.com) and we can catch up and you might decide my next article.

Managing subscriptions

I don’t want subscribers to get content they don’t want and fortunately Substack makes subscribing and managing your subscriptions.

To subscribe click below.

To subscribe to only one of the newsletters subscribe and then click on the subscribed tick (above and should now look like the image below - if not hit refresh).

This will take you the settings page where you choose which newsletters to get notifications for.

And who is behind Datent?

I'm Benny Benford, a former Chief Data Officers that got frustrated with the growing gap between what can be achieved with data and how organisations actually work.

I started my working life as a teacher before moving into working on business transformations as a management consultant and then finally moving into the world of data, where I have settled.

I’ve worked my way from analyst to CDO and passionately believe in the ability of data to transform organisations and people’s careers.

I was Chief Data Officer at Jaguar Land Rover and am lucky to have built data teams up from scratch three times that have gone on to win multiple awards for the value they delivered, the diversity of the teams and the focus on developing people.

I left being a CDO and am starting Datent to solve with some of the frustrations I found in leading a data transformation. I also write with and am a member of the DLC (Data Leadership Collaborative).

For me, data was all about people. Technology is secondary.

Welcome to the Datent family. I'm thrilled to have you on board.

Let's embark on this data journey together, and if you like what you read, then please help to grow the community by sharing links and bringing others in.