What do chess and our company's data have in common?
Both are a "game of strategy". In chess, we have an 8x8 board, 16 pieces consisting of a king, a queen, two bishops, two knights, two rooks, and eight pawns, and the main objective is to move pieces to advance while always trying to protect our king to avoid losing the game. Each piece has an independent role and different moves, but the mission is the same for all.
If we translate this to the business world, the strategy is largely based on applying this dynamic to care for and keep safe the most valuable asset we have: our data. Each member of the company has their function and responsibilities, but the ultimate purpose is also the same.
Just like in chess, a guiding strategy is necessary in the game. And if we want to ensure our victory, it will be crucial to adopt a good data governance maneuver that protects our "king" throughout the game.
How to transform data wealth into a strategic business asset
The most significant challenges companies face are not only technical and technological; data governance is that point that makes the difference and will provide value to the business.
To extract that valuable asset, it is necessary to go beyond simple data management. It's like chess; first, we need to have a clear strategy and give it a focus: decide if our moves will be more defensive or offensive; if we simply want to manage our data or take advantage of all that information. That's where data governance tools come into play.
Three fundamental points stand out:
Data and technology must be available to the business and all the users within it and the way customers work.
Data governance builds trust, both internally within the organization and externally with customers.
Culture precedes strategy. We can have a strategic approach or a series of initial levers for the project, but if all of this is not accompanied by the culture of the people, it is very difficult to get anywhere. One piece alone cannot win the game; it requires the combined effort of all the others. Therefore, it is essential to continuously and persistently train employees in the world of data through tools that allow them to use it in their daily work, in other words, to be Data-Driven employees. Changing the company's culture is the first leg to work on in the organization.
Pragmatism and data governance: inseparable friends
We cannot eat all the pawns at once; we have to take them one by one, accompanied by the business. We cannot tackle KPIs or Dashboards that will generate value unless we first work to ensure that each company's strategic processes can meet their needs.
All of this will depend on all the information being connected and there being coordination between the areas that will work to establish some guidelines in that pragmatism. Therefore, data democratization is vital, and for this, good data governance is necessary.
How many organizations have information in different environments? This data has to be well organized and available because if not, the quality and security part will be decentralized.
Quality and decision-making, new business challenges or major strategic pillars?
Data alone has no value; it needs an organizational model, common guidelines, and tools to guarantee its privacy, integrity, high quality, and trustworthiness and minimum security standards to become a strategic asset with which to make decisions correctly.
What do we want our data for if it's not correct? Before making it available, we have to prioritize that it is right, that it has the appropriate quality, and that it is aligned by all the departments involved. Therefore, quality is one of the critical and necessary pillars that will generate more assets in the company.
It is necessary to have tools that monitor, strengthen, and guarantee all that quality part. Not only our own company data, but it is also necessary to have a strengthening of external data. There are many companies with external data that cause internal problems in capturing information, customers, or other companies.
With these technologies, the information is homogeneous and reliable, making it possible for users to easily access what they need, and avoiding many operational burdens, costs, and reputational risks, such as security and privacy breaches.
Ensuring data security and privacy
For some time now, we have been talking about humanizing data because we are aware of the significant impact they have on the growth of companies and the well-being of people, especially the confidential part and those of a personal nature.
Organizations have to try to build everything around data governance, and in particular, around that personal data, as a team, each one knowing something different. That's where the magic happens: the combination of the data protection expert, a pure business person, those who know about tools and data, and others about strategy.
Each data domain must have its particular framework of security and privacy; the same tool will never be valid for everyone. Always starting from the first objective: maximum protection of personal data.
It is an area where there is a lot of risk. Therefore, it is necessary to protect that confidential part as if we were defending the king in a game of chess. Data security and privacy are our positioning in the market. If that information is not safe and well protected, how are we going to position ourselves in the business landscape?
In short, a good Data Governance strategy has to be the glue and consistency between all these pillars: quality, integrity, security, and privacy. Before starting to use our data, we have to ensure that they can indeed be used.
Having that governance layer allows for faster and more secure decision-making since accessible and quality information is available. And most importantly: we must involve the entire company in our data governance strategy so that everyone can quickly access that information, which will increase trust in the business.