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

CHAPTER 6

Undisciplined Organizations: Disasters Waiting to Happen

There is nothing so disobedient as an undisciplined mind, and there is nothing so obedient as a disciplined mind.

—SIDDHARTHA GAUTAMA, FOUNDER OF BUDDHISM

EXECUTIVE OVERVIEW

Characteristics of an Undisciplined Organization

• Think locally, act locally

• Few defined data rules and policies

• Redundant data found in different sources

• Little or no executive oversight

Technology Adoption

• Tactical applications to solve very specific problems: for example, sales force automation or database marketing

• Very localized data management technology implemented within the tactical applications, if at all

Business Capabilities

• IT-driven projects

• Duplicate, inconsistent data

• Inability to adapt to business changes

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.

Business executives do not see themselves as undisciplined. That’s why most leaders of organizations whose data maturity is undisciplined may not recognize their problem. Industry research has estimated that as many as one-third of companies ...