In recent years, there has been tremendous growth in data volume across all organizations. Data has become the backbone of competitiveness, productivity, development, and innovation in many companies. Fleckenstein and Fellows (2018) note that a large amount of information places people in a particular context in which data management becomes a fundamental part of the company’s assets. (p. 4). Today, data management is a priority in organizations, and it is becoming increasingly necessary to use quality corporate information data management approaches to achieve the strategic goals of companies.
However, the emergence of data-management functions and chief data officers (CDOs) is not the key to success. Today, with a shrinking focus on data and analytics, a proper data management strategy is imperative to meeting business goals. According to DalleMule and Davenport (2017), there are two types of data management strategy: “defensive” and “offensive.” The authors argue that these strategies differ in terms of various business goals and actions to achieve them. Thus, the data defensive strategy aims to minimize the risk of worsening the situation by complying with regulatory requirements, using analytics, and building systems to discover and prevent fraud. This strategy’s application ensures the integrity and safety of data passing through the company’s internal structures through its standardization and management. Besides, the use of a data offensive strategy aims to increase profits and the number of clients. In this case, data analysis, data modeling, and integration of disparate data are used to understand the customer’s needs and make the right management decision.
Data management is central to every field today, and the importance of strategic data management is growing. Thus, both strategies discussed above are essential and indispensable in data management. The use of each of them depends on the specific task facing the actor. Every company needs both offense and defense approaches to succeed, and prosperity lies in the right balance of these two strategies.
References
Fleckenstein, M., & Fellows, L. (2018). Modern data strategy. Springer, Cham.
DalleMule, L., &. Davenport, Th. (2017). What’s your data strategy? The key is to balance offense and defense. Web.