Forget Data “Ownership.” Focus On Data Use, And Sharing
Sharing data is like sharing ideas. I’ve already shared my favorite Thomas Edison quote about the value of ideas. But wait, there’s more. That value is multiplied by sharing. As has been said by many throughout history,
If I have a dollar and you have a dollar and we exchange them, we both still have one dollar. However, if I have an idea and you also have an idea and we exchange them, we both have two ideas.
A 1917 advertisement for a business magazine in the Chicago Tribune elaborated,
There is another difference. A dollar does only so much work. It buys so many potatoes and no more. But an idea that fits your business may keep you in potatoes all your life.
The same goes for data sharing. And, most business decision-makers understand that value. Inside of organizations, decision-makers recognize that they need data from other departments, and push to break down existing data silos. Data may be captured within data domains but that doesn’t mean that it needs to end up siloed and inaccessible.
Yes, data is collected through systems that support a specific task, like ERP or CRM. However, decision-makers across different functions need to understand complex business environments; their functions are interconnected. To understand the impact of a marketing campaign, decision makers might need to know details of the placement, the audience targeted and other “marketing” data, but they will also need to get access to sales data such as transaction details, and maybe operational data like delivery or logistics. Without sales data, marketing won’t know the impact of a campaign. Internal data silos don’t work for business decision-makers. Data needs are more interconnected.
And that extends beyond internal data. Knowing what’s going on internally is not enough to get a complete picture of a business environment. Most companies have expanded their use of external data to improve their decision-making. From something as simple as weather data to predict consumer choices to more complex satellite imagery to forecast agricultural production.
A growing number of companies are also willing to share their own data: in a recent survey by the Economist Intelligence Unit, 50% of decision-makers reported that they frequently shared data with third parties in order to drive innovation in products and services; a similar number reported sharing data to improve customer services practices.
In today’s business environment, data silos are replaced by the networked sharing relationships illustrated by the Snowflake Data Cloud.
Data Leaders Confirm Use And Sharing As Strategic Goals
Earlier this week I moderated virtual roundtable of data leaders discussing topics of data ownership and governance. The discussion first explored the role of data leadership and how it had changed, with several confirming that responsibility had shifted from IT to the business. But more importantly, that shift implied a more strategic use of data, a strategy of data sharing, and the need for business-oriented tools and usage-focused data governance. Data governance must facilitate use, particularly for non-technical users, and must ensure consistent use across the organization. And, data “ownership” is about getting data into the hands of business users.
“Ownership” Itself (Whatever That Means) Doesn’t Matter
The question “Who are the data owners?” evoked a collective shrug, implying “Who cares?” Participants pushed back on a claim that data producers are the “owners.” “Not so,” they said. Data producers can’t be the “owners” as they don’t know how it will be used, and thus what value the data can bring to the organization. What was clearly more important than a discussion of data ownership was how the data would be used, and how to govern that use.
As one participant asserted, data leaders are the “conductors of the orchestra.” That analogy resonates with me. I’ve often said that data is like music. It’s more about the symphony than the individual notes. But I’ll have to explore that thought in another blog.
