{"id":7885,"date":"2024-01-10T15:49:43","date_gmt":"2024-01-10T15:49:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/weareoakland.com\/?post_type=guides&p=7885"},"modified":"2026-05-14T14:32:42","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T14:32:42","slug":"building-a-data-governance-program-by-stealththe-lighthouse-concept","status":"publish","type":"guides","link":"https:\/\/weareoakland.com\/guides\/building-a-data-governance-program-by-stealththe-lighthouse-concept\/","title":{"rendered":"Data Governance by Stealth: The Lighthouse Concept"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Introduction<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n\n\n
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Chances are, you’re reading this guide because you’ve been asked to launch, support or accelerate some form of data governance initiative.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Congratulations \u2013 you\u2019re embarking on a worthy endeavour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here at Oakland, our Data Governance team have trodden a similar path as we helped guide our clients across multiple data governance implementations. The results have been profoundly beneficial; often in ways the organisation had never considered at the outset.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having delivered a number of large data governance programs, we\u2019re in the fortunate position to look in the rear-view mirror and spot those critical activities that held the key to success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019ve curated those learnings into this guide to provide a \u2018warts and all\u2019 account of what you can expect as you embark on your own data governance journey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, as you\u2019ve no doubt experienced, every data initiative presents its own distinct challenges. If you would like to discuss how our approach could help your organisation deliver a more successful data initiative, please book a discovery call to discuss further.<\/p>\n<\/div>

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Part 1: Building the foundation for a successful data governance program<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n\n\n

What motivates the next generation of data governance stakeholders?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

At Oakland, we typically see the demand for an enterprise-wide data governance process initiated as part of a broader data foundation or enterprise-wide digital transformation. Many clients are keen to embark on their data journey in a quest for monetisation and the creation of new opportunities through innovation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is a growing realisation that better enterprise data leads to increased business performance, smarter decision-making and significantly reduced risk. As a result of these strategic triggers, we increasingly find executive stakeholders reaching out for guidance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Making enterprise data management changes centrally in these organisations can be a challenge because they are often organised around different segments or geographies. There is also a lot of autonomy in large organisations, so to make changes centrally you\u2019ve got to be business-led.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

People have to see the value in the changes you want to make.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The data governance process: ‘What vs How’<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019ve spent time sifting through the vast amount of books, articles, webinars and frameworks on the topic of data governance, you\u2019ll soon realise that the \u2018whats\u2019 of data governance are reasonably well understood and readily available. Most organisations we speak to know what is required to get the basics of data governance in place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, particularly with larger, federated businesses, the translation from the \u2018what\u2019 into the \u2018how\u2019 is where many data governance programs begin to struggle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This question of how to deliver data governance in a way that engages and motivates the business, whilst simultaneously laying a future data governance foundation, is a challenge we\u2019ve obsessed over for many years at Oakland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s through this obsession that led us to the realisation that many business cases are not positioned correctly to launch a successful platform for data governance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Re-thinking the data governance business case<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In the early beginnings of our data governance practice, we would collaborate with clients to build defensible business cases for data governance, often as a request to help construct a large data transformation program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The data management fundamentals<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Large-scale data and digital transformation programs typically incorporate a broad swathe of data fundamentals such as:<\/p>\n\n\n\n