Why create a data strategy?

There are many reasons why an organization needs a data strategy. The most obvious one is to have a plan on how to become data-driven in order to generate revenue and achieve cost savings. Enterprises have learned from the pitfalls of not managing data as an asset and data product. They have lost customer opportunities and revenue from business decisions made with untrustworthy data or experienced high costs when developing customer goods. In Chapter 2, Show Me the Business Value, we discussed examples such as costs associated with regulatory fines due to lack of Data Privacy enforcement or lost revenue from bad metadata and Data Quality. These factors lead us to the need for a well-thought-out and structured data strategy that manages data effectively and is aligned with the enterprise’s business goals.

Not having a data strategy document can lead to the following negative outcomes:

• An immature level of organizational readiness
• Incorrect...