Data governance can be a game changer for modern business.

Yet, getting to the point of value is easier said than done.

A new report, Transforming data Into action: The business outlook for data governance, developed by the Economist Business Unit, explores the challenges and opportunities for data governance across a range of industries and geographies.

The research, spanning 500 senior executives across Europe and North America shows that nearly all business executives consider data essential to meeting their company’s strategic challenges.

Yet, for many, data governance is still focused on tactical initiatives including legal and compliance requirements and privacy concerns.

Unlock the untapped potential of your data

These defensive approaches to data governance are delivering tremendous value – both through reducing the risk of penalties and through cutting the costs of compliance.

Yet, organisations that are able to make the shift from purely defensive to a blended offensive and defensive data governance approach are achieving greater success in the marketplace, and receiving a higher return on their data governance investment.

Compliance drivers – for regulations such as banking’s BCBS 239, the European Union’s GDPR, and South Africa’s PoPIA – cannot meaningfully deliver a competitive advantage.

Simplistically, data governance can help your business to understand the data impact of compliance programs and delivers the decision-making and record-keeping capabilities to cost-effectively prove compliance. But all else being equal this will not transform your business.

Transform your business with offensive data governance

Too much focus on risk can drive a “lock-down” of data – keeping critical data away from people who could use it to drive value.

A balance between offensive and defensive data governance helps to move the business into the realm of achieving competitive advantage – most tellingly through the use of advanced analytics and even machine learning to deliver new insights about the business for decision-makers.

For top performers, data accuracy and the ability of data to contribute to strategic goals compete with compliance initiatives as key metrics of successful data governance.

New technologies: such as blockchain, cloud computing, artificial intelligence and IoT; are expected to increase the strategic importance of data governance as they create additional opportunities to exploit data.

Data governance is making the shift from a supporting function to a central role.

As it does so, the executives leading data governance initiatives are becoming central role players in driving corporate strategy,