Real Data Management is not done for the sake of being able to use the desirable words such as data governance, data management, and data-driven. There are foundational requirements that are essential to truly operationalizing real data management. They start with being able to answer three questions.
Give it the respect that it deserves. Data can make or break your company and yet so many times it is an afterthought, taking action often too late to save it. Companies dedicate executive level roles for the functions directly related to or dependent upon data such as security, privacy, analytics, litigation, etc. and yet few place the same level of executive focus on the data itself and just hand it off to another role as a secondary responsibility.
Of course the bottom line matters. High quality data creates more accurate and better results in assessing the past and the future. Inaccurate data is a liability. Massive and conflicting data increases cost and erodes trust. Compliance to current and (even more so) future laws and regulations. The list goes on, but too often each reaction results in a singular one-off benefit and that is not managing data.
