MIT Sloan Management Review Article on Data Governance in the 21st-Century Organization

Good governance requires balance and adjustment. When done well, it can fuel digital innovation without compromising security.

In one of our recent research projects, a respondent told our team that “data is the food of AI. It’s what AI grows on.” This simple but powerful metaphor illustrates that generating value with data is not about having lots of data on hand; it is about using the right data (at the right time, one might argue), which explains why many organizations are still struggling to become data-driven.

At the same time, data breaches that we too frequently hear about underline the reality that having data is not without risk for organizations — as illustrated by a quick glance at GDPR rulings.1 To paraphrase the Spider-Man comics, with great data comes great responsibility. So how do organizations generate value by leveraging data while avoiding the issues that stem from generating, collecting, and processing data? To shed light on this pressing question, it’s important to discuss the relevance of data governance in data-driven organizations.