Data Management Is Not Optional for Growing Businesses
Your data is either an asset or a liability. Here is how to build a data management foundation that supports growth instead of creating chaos.
At the Gates Foundation, I built the data governance and analytics frameworks that connected program data to organizational decision-making. Every dollar the Foundation spent had to be traceable. Every program outcome had to be measurable. When your data is solid, that’s straightforward. When it’s not, it’s a crisis.
What surprised me when I started working with growing businesses in the U.S. is how many of them are operating without any data management strategy at all. Customer data lives in a CRM, a spreadsheet, and someone’s inbox. Financial data sits in one system, but the metrics the leadership team reviews come from a different one, and the numbers don’t match. Nobody is sure which source is authoritative, so every report starts with a debate about whether the data is even right.
This isn’t a technology problem. It’s an operations problem. And it gets worse with every new hire, every new tool, and every month you wait to address it.
What Data Management Actually Means
Data management doesn’t mean buying an expensive platform. It means answering a few fundamental questions and enforcing the answers consistently:
What data do we collect, and where does it live? Most organizations can’t answer this question completely. They have a general sense, but nobody has mapped every system, every spreadsheet, every shared drive where data is stored. Without this inventory, you can’t manage what you don’t know exists.
Who owns each data domain? Customer data needs an owner. Financial data needs an owner. Employee data needs an owner. Not someone who enters data day-to-day, but someone who is accountable for its accuracy, quality, and appropriate use. Without clear ownership, data quality degrades invisibly until it becomes a visible problem at the worst possible moment.
What are the standards? How should names be formatted? What fields are required? How long do we keep records? What’s the process when someone finds an error? These standards don’t need to be complicated. They need to exist and be followed.
The Compound Cost of Ignoring It
Data problems compound. A duplicate customer record is a minor annoyance. A thousand duplicate records mean your marketing team is reporting inflated numbers, your sales team is contacting the same prospects twice, and your leadership is making decisions based on data that doesn’t reflect reality.
I’ve seen organizations discover, during a compliance audit, that they had been retaining personal data they were legally required to delete years ago. I’ve seen sales teams lose deals because their CRM showed outdated contact information that nobody was responsible for updating. These aren’t edge cases. They’re the natural consequence of growing without a data management foundation.
How to Start Without Overcomplicating It
You don’t need a six-month initiative to get your data under control. Here’s the approach I’ve used with organizations of every size:
Week 1: Map your data landscape. Open a spreadsheet and list every system that stores data. For each one, note what data it holds, who manages it, and how it connects to other systems. This exercise alone will reveal gaps and redundancies you didn’t know existed.
Week 2: Assign ownership. For each data domain, name one person who is responsible for its quality and accuracy. Not a committee. One person. Publish these assignments so the entire organization knows who to go to.
Week 3: Document your standards. Write a one-page data standards document. Naming conventions, required fields, retention policies, error correction process. Keep it short enough that people actually read it.
Week 4: Set a review cadence. Data management is not a one-time project. Schedule a monthly or quarterly review to check that standards are being followed, ownership is current, and new systems or data sources have been added to your inventory.
The Connection to Everything Else
Clean, well-managed data is the foundation for everything your business wants to do next. Reliable reporting. Confident decision-making. Compliance readiness. AI and automation. Carlos and I see this connection constantly. The businesses that get the most value from technology investments are the ones that already have their data in order.
If you’re a growing business and you know your data is getting away from you, it’s worth addressing now. The longer you wait, the more expensive the cleanup becomes. Reach out and let’s talk about where to start.