Survival of the Fittest: Data Management at the Crossroads

Enterprise Data Management has been proclaimed as a ‘big’ hit for many years. Yet, many companies are still struggling to advance Data Management because their funding model doesn’t allow an enterprise implementation.

The Survival Steps used by soldiers behind enemy lines provided a framework to discuss techniques needed by Data Management leaders. In the presentation, several questions were considered: Why do some companies thrive while others barely make it? What does it take to survive? What does it take to be successful?

Charles Darwin pondered these questions regarding survival and extinction of a biological species. How do these same questions apply to a Data Management organization?

By “survival of the fittest” Darwin did not mean that the toughest will survive, the swiftest will win, the smartest will succeed, or the biggest will dominate.

What Darwin meant was something far different. Darwin said that the organism that best “fits” its environment had the best chance for survival.

A combination of techniques of leadership, salesmanship, parenting, and negotiation were presented. These techniques provided guidelines that can be used to help your Data Management program adapt and fit within your organization.

In summary, the steps applicable to Data Management included:

S -- Assess the Situation (Know where your Data is) Find the Business “Pain Points”

U -- Start the “Reign in” Process

R -- Communicate – Early and Often (Roadshow)

V -- Aggressively manage offshore deliverables to insure data integrity

I -- Projects to Fix Data

V -- Rewards for Good Data Practices

A -- Take Advantage of Opportunities (Sarbanes Oxley, ERP, Packaged Software, etc.)

L -- Get everyone on board / Visibility to the data