What Matters Most?
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Understanding what matters most to your c-level colleagues may require a change in mindset
In a recent data governance survey we did with customers, prospects and practitioners, we found some pretty interesting metrics. We’re still analyzing the details (more to come!), but one thing really stood out to me. The point I’m going to expand on today speaks to the level of interest and involvement that senior executives have in data governance initiatives.
The survey was taken by over 60 people, mostly representing very large, multinational organizations. The final question we asked was “Do the CFO, CTO, Board of Directors, etc care about data governance? Who does? (0=no interest; 5=actively engaged).”
Here’s what we found – this was a little shocking to me, even though I’ve been working in this space for over 20 years:
30% to 52% of the companies who filled this question out listed their CEOs, CROs, CMOs, CSOs, CCOs, COOs GMs and BoD Members as not interested at all – they reported an answer of zero!
Another 22% to 32% listed an interest level of one, and 9% to 22% list an interest level of two for those positions. Adding insult to injury, there was 0% to 9.7% that answered 5. Companies listed 9.7% of CSOs actively involved, and 6.7% of CCOs actively involved! The others were either 0% to 3%. Sigh…
The numbers point to a disconnect in how data governance is perceived across an organization
I think I know why.
Ask yourself how often discussions of data governance turn into discussions about data models, data dictionaries, metadata, unified search, uniqueness, enterprise IDs, MDM, BI, etc? How many business leaders care a whit about these topics? Not too many, in my experience.
GMs care about how they’re going to make their revenue targets, or fulfillment goals, or pipeline forecasts. They care about their businesses, and they are rewarded to make their organizations run more successfully. Generally that means making more money and keeping more of what you make ethically and legally, while delighting your customers and making your organization “a great place to work.”
The problem is that we in DG geekland speak a different language and try to convince our poor business colleagues that they’re not managing data as an asset, or that they have a 9.29384% duplication rate. Over the years, many give in and agree that they’re not managing data as an asset – just to get us to go away and bother someone else!
Few, if any “get it” when we speak about the value of data. Usually, it’s the CMO that gets the value of shared data. But the survey shows that they care less than the CSO or the CCO!
We MUST begin to provide a “direct line of sight” from the things that matter most to our business leaders to the underlying data quality problems that keep them from meeting their objectives.
It’s gotta be a “no brainer” when we tell them that they’re not achieving their up-sell or cross-sell numbers because we don’t have a comprehensive view of a customer from across channels and product lines.
We have to be able to easily show them that they’re wasting significant money on marketing campaigns on people who are no longer customers, or who have moved on.
We have to show them that the organization is at extreme risk because they’re violating privacy laws.
When we can show them how we can help them achieve what matters most then they’ll listen and get involved. Then, we have to be able to tell them how much it’ll cost to fix the problems that keep them from their huge annual bonuses, but that’s another blog post!
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Marty you nailed this one. The value is the impact on the bottom line and the C levels could care less about how it is achieved; MDM, DQ profiling, data hubs, etc.... Business case is what the overall management and approval will deliver in level of effort, headcount, timings, ability to go to market, etc...