“Hope is not a strategy.”

Author

Tristan Burns
August 08, 2024

READ TIME: 3 MINUTES

Not having a data strategy is a very bad idea for data leaders.

If your organisation doesn’t have a data strategy that aligns with its business strategy, you’re headed up a certain creek without a paddle.

Having a data strategy might sound like some lofty aspiration that only massive corporations should be bothered about, but that’s simply not the case. Every organisation that plans to leverage data needs one - in some shape or another.

A robust data strategy isn’t just a nice-to-have; y’all need one. But what most people fail to understand about a data strategy is that it is not some stand alone thing. To develop a truly effective data strategy, it must be aligned and designed to help deliver your organisation’s overall BUSINESS strategy!

Why bother aligning data strategies with business strategy?

A business strategy can be described as simply as, “Where the business plans to play and how it plans to win”. Once this is determined, the business will outline the key initiatives and goals for “winning”.

In order to achieve this together, every executive, department and individual needs to work together to accomplish that goal. Our plans for how data supports these efforts should be no different.

Unfortunately…

Without a cohesive strategy that aligns data initiatives with business objectives, you’re not just wasting time and resources—you’re missing out on potential goldmines.

Misalignment means lost opportunities, inefficient operations, and ultimately, failure to hit your business targets. ❌

☄️ The impacts of this problem are far reaching:

  1. Inefficient Resource Allocation: Misaligned data projects drain resources and time, focusing on initiatives that don’t move the needle.

  2. No ROI For Data Initiatives: Data initiatives that don’t align with business goals are far less likely to deliver positive commercial outcomes for the business.

  3. Data Leaders Fail: Data initiatives that fail to generate ROI will reflect a failure on behalf of the data leader and their team.

  4. Fragmented Data Silos: No clear data strategy results in fragmented and siloed data efforts that compound tech debt and further complicate the data landscape for the business.

But all is not lost. There’s a way to turn this around and harness the full power of your data.

Here's how:

🛠️ Let’s fix this:

Getting alignment between your business goals and your plans for data initiatives itself require a strategic approach.

  1. Align Data Goals with Business Objectives: Clearly define what you want to achieve with your data in terms of business outcomes. Whether it’s increasing revenue, enhancing customer experience, or optimising operations, your data strategy must directly support these business goals and the initiatives behind them

  2. Foster Collaboration Between Data and Business Teams: Establish regular touch points between data teams and business leaders. Ensure that data initiatives are guided by business needs and that there’s a shared understanding of goals and priorities.

  3. Develop Integrated KPIs: Create key performance indicators that reflect both data and business objectives. Ensure these KPIs are tracked and reviewed regularly to measure progress and alignment. This will help keep everyone focused on what matters most to the business.

  4. Invest in Scalable Data Solutions: Use technology that can grow with your business and integrate seamlessly with your existing systems. Advanced analytics, AI, and machine learning tools can provide the insights needed to make informed business decisions, but they must be chosen and implemented with your business goals in mind.

    Tech for tech’s sake is a fool’s errand - it must clearly support and align with logical business objectives.

These steps are not exhaustive and there is likely to be combat between technically minded stakeholders believing the data strategy should be informed by what’s technically possible rather than what supports a business strategy they may not be fully on board with.

Take it slowly and bring stakeholders along for the ride. Share justifications and wins for all your efforts.

Good luck out there.

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