The Data Asset: How Smart Companies Govern Their Data for Business Success

CHAPTER 2

Risk Mitigation: How Quality Data Keeps Your Company Out of Trouble

A danger foreseen is half avoided.

—PROVERB

EXECUTIVE OVERVIEW

Will you be in business next week? Next year? In 20 years? Without sound risk assessment and mitigation, you won’t. By definition, risk assessment and avoidance require the collection of data from around your organization. Risk areas of critical importance include:

• Corporate governance

• Mergers and acquisitions

• Corporate reputation

• Compliance

• Fraud detection

• Risk assessment

This chapter explores the connection between corporate risk and corporate data.

REMEMBER

1. Data quality and data governance should never be considered a one-time project. A quality culture must be established as an ongoing, continuous process.

2. No organization can tackle enterprise-wide data quality and data governance all at once. To be successful, your journey must be evolutionary. Start small and take achievable steps that can be measured along the way.

Most executives become successful not by avoiding risk, but by understanding and embracing it. Business magazines tout executives who take risky gambles on far-flung ventures that pay off handsomely. What executive has not wanted to be described as “daring” or “adventurous”—all words closely aligned with “risk taker”?

However, executives know that not all risk is created equal. There is calculated risk—done with ...