Why You Need to Develop a Robust Data Governance Strategy

It’s almost become a cliché these days to wax lyrical about how important data is in the modern business landscape. But it’s true. Your ability to collect, generate, analyze, and act on the data you have available will become your competitive advantage. Consolidating and scrutinizing seemingly innocuous data can yield trends and insights that are not otherwise visible. Using data to drive your decisions helps to avoid the incorrect assumptions, preconceived notions, and errors in thinking that can lead you down the wrong path.

That being said, not all data is equal. In this crazy land rush to collect data, we’ve seen companies who go too far by collecting and making use of data in ways that make customers and stakeholders uneasy. There are important ethical and legal considerations that come into play and must be taken seriously if you are to create a sustainable data-driven operation. 

This is where data governance comes in. A good start to data governance includes establishing practices and processes to control how data is collected, used, and disseminated in and out of the organization. Considering your organization or industry’s ethical, legal, and political dimensions adds breadth and builds trust with your stakeholders. And finally, developing a process to adapt and respond to changes will ensure that the data governance strategy remains an effective part of your organization’s overall approach.

For example, if you look at the confidentiality required in healthcare, you can see the ethics playing out in real-time. Healthcare providers can, and do, use the data they collect to inform research and operations but have to ensure that they are operating strictly within their legislated boundaries – or they risk harming the trust they have with their stakeholders. The stakes here are very high and it’s crucial that there are robust policies and procedures in place to protect the sanctity of that data. There’s just no other way around it.

In other industries, you’ll find different sets of guidelines. For instance, the logistics industry develops their competitive advantage by collecting and using route data to plan more efficiently and reduce costs. A data governance strategy can help ensure that the location data is treated with the discretion that it calls for. But every approach requires attention to the context when it comes to governance. The nuances of your specific situation will determine what an effective strategy is and how it can be best serve your needs.

This is why it is so important to have a strong data governance strategy in place right from the very beginning. By setting the tone proactively and building the necessary structures, you can avoid ethical errors down the line as you seek to leverage data assets. These governance policies are not designed to hamstring your progress, but rather to set the guardrails concretely so that your team understands what you stand for as an organization. Once you have this in place, you can ensure shared accountability and a common set of values that binds everyone together.

The importance of a rigorous approach cannot be understated. It’s a crucial component of any organization and it will continue to get more important as data plays a central role in decision making. Spending the time and effort needed to craft a robust data governance strategy is something that will create and solidify your competitive advantage. 

Collecting data on its own is not enough. A data governance strategy is emerging as the key component of a comprehensive approach to managing the ethical and legal use of your data assets. Now is the time to revisit or develop your data governance strategy. Staying ahead of the curve allows your strategy to be proactive rather than reactive.