Your Data Strategy should be concise, actionable, and understandable by business and IT! Data is not just another resource. It is your most powerful, yet poorly managed and therefore underutilized organizational asset. Data are your sole non-depletable, non-degradable, durable strategic assets, and they are pervasively shared across every organizational area. Overcoming lack of talent, barriers in organizational thinking, and seven specific data sins are organizational prerequisites to be satisfied before (a measurable) nine out of 10 organizations can achieve the three primary goals of an organizational Data Strategy, which are to:

•       Improve your organization’s data
•       Improve the way your people use data
•       Improve the way your people use data to achieve your organizational strategy

In this manner, your organizational Data Strategy can be used to best focus your data assets in precise support of your organization's strategic objectives. Once past the prerequisites, organizations must develop a disciplined, repeatable means of improving the data literacy, standards, and supply as business objectives in specific areas that become the foci of subsequent Data Governance efforts. This process (based on the theory of constraints) is where the strategic data work really occurs, as organizations identify prioritized areas where better assets, literacy, and support (Data Strategy components) can help an organization better achieve specific strategic objectives. Then the process becomes lather, rinse, and repeat. Several complementary concepts are covered, including:

•       A cohesive argument for why Data Strategy is necessary for effective Data Governance
•       An overview of prerequisites for effective Data Strategy, as well as common pitfalls that can detract from its implementation, such as the “Seven Deadly Data Sins”
•       A repeatable process for identifying and removing data constraints, and the importance of balancing business operation and innovation while doing so

Peter Aiken

Founding Director, Data Blueprint

Peter Aiken is an acknowledged Data Management (DM) authority. As a practicing data consultant, professor, author, and researcher, he has studied DM for more than 30 years. International recognition has come from assisting more than 150 organizations in 30 countries, including some of the world's most important. He is a dynamic presence at events and author of 10 books and multiple publications, including his latest on Data Strategy. Peter also hosts the longest running webinar series dedicated to DM (hosted by dataversity.net). In 1999, he founded Data Blueprint, a consulting firm that helps organizations leverage data for profit, improvement, competitive advantage, and operational efficiencies.  He is also Associate Professor of Information Systems at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), past President of the International Data Management Association (DAMA-I), and Associate Director of the MIT International Society of Chief Data Officers.