Data governance is imperative to ensuring the highest quality of data exists throughout the lifecycle of an enterprise. Stan Christiaens, Co-founder and CTO of Collibra, tells us how building data-centricity into your career should be high on your list of priorities.
Many businesses will agree that data offers huge potential business value. Research from MIT and UPenn has found organisations that make decisions based on data and business analytics outperform those that do not. This holds true across critical business areas such as output, productivity, return on equity and market value. However, investment often comes at a high price. From data collection to cleaning, hosting to maintenance and analytics to security, the shift towards becoming a data-driven organisation can not only feel like more work but it can be compromised if the human and organisational factors are ignored.
Businesses must recognise the transformation that needs to happen from within. To fully capitalise on their data, organisations need employees at all levels to understand how data can be used to drive new and existing business – not simply operational efficiency. This requires a strong data culture that encompasses various aspects: wide access to trusted, high-quality data, data literacy, value and belief systems, and leadership. Without this foundation, organisations will not be able to maximise the impact of their investments in data infrastructures and turn insights into action.
To set and execute on a business strategy driven by data and analytics, businesses need a senior sponsor to champion the value of data and work closely with employees at all levels to communicate this message. By sharing a clear vision of how data will enable the business to grow and empower staff to drive real change, these leaders will inspire employees and reshape their attitudes towards data; motivating staff to use data in their decision-making and rise up as data citizens. This is also an important step in promoting the idea of data as an asset; educating employees on how the data they come across on a daily basis ripples through other parts of the business. In other words, employees must be aware of the bigger picture.
Similar to any business proposal, encouraging a data culture requires both salesmanship and a value proposition. The aim is to get employees excited about the potential data can have, not just for their organisation, but for their business function. A way of doing this is by giving a practical demonstration of how various types and combinations of data can be used to discover insights. For example, any individual customer is likely to have their data held in multiple systems and by different teams; from finance, to customer relationship management, to customer support. Each system will offer different insights into the customer’s behaviour and by connecting these data sources, businesses benefit from a more holistic view of the customer’s life cycle. This takes customer intimacy to the highest level.
