VIDEO | MassMutual Enterprise Data Governance and Privacy Lead: Clear Ownership Is Foundational to Quality Data Management

(US and Canada) Gary Schneider, MassMutual Enterprise Data Governance and Privacy Lead, speaks with Della Shea, Country CDO Ambassador for Canada, and CDO Magazine Global Editorial Board Member, in a video interview about building a culture around data governance, establishing stakeholder relationships, strategies to adopt an enterprise-wide data governance program, and KPIs to indicate its effective implementation.

Schneider begins by stating the organizational need to start with a clear vision, message, and mandate to establish a culture around data governance. He recommends initiating policies and standards to define the target state of data governance that the organization desires. This will set up the skills, partnerships, and messaging necessary for the program to succeed.

Elaborating, Schneider acknowledges the complexity of executing an enterprise-scale data governance program. He cautions that the complexity of implementing a data governance program on an enterprise scale can often intimidate people, making it necessary to explain how it can benefit their business function.

To address this, Schneider mentions that successful identification and engagement of stakeholders is achieved through a combination of macro and micro approaches. This involves finding specific business use cases that will benefit from adopting data governance practices while still keeping the overall program in focus, he adds.

For generating enthusiasm and massive adoption of the program, Schneider encourages celebrating, socializing, and reinforcing the successes obtained by the smaller efforts. He uses a four-point “military” reference to explain his approach:

Have a clear mission and enterprise view of the benefits

Establish formal sponsorship up the chain of command

Create a beachhead in businesses to demonstrate the value

Train and equip groups and use them to build job adoption of practices

Schneider maintains that having clear ownership and accountability for data management and quality oversight within each business function is of utmost importance. He stresses that clarifying roles around ownership is foundational to building a sound quality management practice. He also notes that owners must fulfill their data quality obligations, with data governance providing tooling, training, and guidance for a standardized approach.

When asked about KPIs, Schneider advocates combining old-school and new-school methods to assess data quality. He believes organizations should strive for deeper insights into leveraging data quality to measure and manage risks. Adding on, he recommends measuring performance metrics that indicate improvements in data quality controls, expected value, risk events and ratings, and the frequency of risk incidents.

Furthermore, he also suggests monitoring customer and stakeholder perception as another metric to explore. Schneider opines that these measures will demonstrate the impact of data quality management practices on an enterprise-wide level.

In conclusion, Schneider reckons that data quality management practices help organizations to mitigate risk and improve overall business operations.

CDO Magazine appreciates Gary Schneider for sharing his insights, and success stories with our global community.

See more from Gary Schneider 

Risk Management Is the Responsibility of All Employees