“Opening the Black Box” is our ongoing series on the data treatments, assumptions, and methodologies behind our analyses. In this series, we answer frequently asked questions on how we build, validate, and make decisions about our data.
Thoughts or feedback for us? We welcome it.
Some of the most important decisions we make about data governance at CEM are informed directly by our subscribers. Over the past few blogs, we have walked through how our Data Governance Committee is structured, the eight principles that guide our work, and the Global Reporting Principles that set the standard for the industry. What ties all of that together is you. Your input shapes our standards, our methodologies, and the direction of our products. This blog explains how that process works and what role you play in it.
How we hear from you
CEM receives feedback from subscribers through several channels. These include one-on-one conversations with CEM Relationship Managers, live feedback at our conferences, working groups and Steering Committees for specific research or product projects, and formal input through our Client Advisory Boards. Each of these channels serves a different purpose, and together they give us a well-rounded view of what our subscribers need.
The Client Advisory Boards
The Client Advisory Boards play the most structured role in data governance. CEM has a separate Advisory Board for each of its product families, one for investments and one for administration. Board members are senior leaders at their organizations and are actively engaged in advancing benchmarking practices across the industry. They represent institutions from both the public and corporate sectors and varying sizes. CEM nominates the board members, and members serve a three-year term.
The Client Advisory Boards meet once a quarter to review the direction of CEM’s products and data governance. Their involvement is substantive. In the most recent quarter, the advisory boards approved the methodologies for the Data Scorecards based on the Global Reporting Principles. The Boards are also engaged in survey changes, definitions, and data validation rules as they evolve. In addition, they provide guidance on the annual research topics for each product family.
Where the decision authority sits
Subscriber input is valued and actively sought. It shapes how we evolve our products, our definitions, and our governance standards. At the same time, CEM holds ultimate decision authority. All decisions are made in line with our data principles and require explicit approval through the governance structures we have described in this series. Read more about our providence principle and the full set of data principles.
Our committment to you
The trust our subscribers have placed in us over the years, many for close to a decade without interruption, is something we take seriously. This series is one way of honouring that trust. We are not here to simply explain ourselves. We are here to open a dialogue that pushes our work, and the industry, forward.
We look forward to hearing from you. If there is a question you would like us to address, please reach out to us at insights@explorecem.com.
This blog is part of our “Opening the Black Box” series. If you’d like to receive new posts in your inbox, please click here to subscribe.