Executive Summary
In the modern business world, healthy data isn’t a technical luxury—it’s a strategic imperative. Overlooking even minor data issues can silently erode decision-making, operational efficiency, and even regulatory compliance. Early symptoms of illness shouldn’t be ignored, and neither should the warning signs in an organization’s data environment.
Here’s how a regular data health check can protect, and accelerate, business growth.
The Executive Imperative: Why Data Health Checks Belong in the Boardroom
1. Data Drives Decisions—But Only If It’s Trusted
Every major business initiative, whether it’s market expansion, M&A, or digital transformation, relies on data. Data is the foundation of successful organizational decision making. If that data is outdated, inconsistent, or misaligned, leadership risks making high-stakes decisions based on flawed assumptions or incomplete information. One study by Bell Porter found that companies missing financial projections can experience a 6–10% drop in stock value within just a few months. While the study doesn’t specifically cite data quality as the cause, the implication is clear: when projections are built on flawed or outdated data, the business impact can be severe.
How can you be sure your data is trustworthy
2. Compliance and Security: The Cost of Inaction Is Steep
Regulatory requirements with specific provisions around data including (GDPR, CCPA, SOX, and HIPAA) continue to grow more complex and failing to meet them can have real consequences. Misconfigured access controls, incomplete permission sets, outdated data structures, or countless other issues can lead to breaches, fines, and reputational fallout. Even a single stale report or overlooked permission can compromise compliance.
Action: Assign clear ownership for data governance and require a compliance-focused review as part of every data health check. Include data security in executive-level risk discussions.
Redundant dashboards, duplicated ETL jobs, and bloated data repositories can quietly drain IT budgets. Auditing a large organization’s production environment can lead to discovering tens or even hundreds of thousands of dashboards , most of them unused or duplicative. That can be indicative of inefficiencies that typically go unnoticed which leads to costs spiking and performance suffering.
How can you protect against creeping inefficiencies?
4. Customer Trust and Business Reputation
Inaccurate or misaligned data can result in customer-facing errors including inaccurate reports, failing to meet SLAs, and an erosion of trust. According to a Thales study, “Global trust in digital services is decreasing or remaining stagnant at best, even among highly regulated industries“The message from customers is clear; any customer first organization needs to prioritize data management and protection.
How can we ensure data is properly managed and secure?
5. Agility and Innovation: Build on a Solid Foundation
Digital transformation and AI initiatives demand flexible, dependable data systems. Outdated or fragmented architectures slows innovation, force teams into workarounds, and increase time to value.
How can we support digital transformation as an ongoing process?
What Does a Data Health Check Involve?
How often should you consider a health check?: Annually, and following any major changes to either business processes or technical architecture.
Final Word: Data Health Is a Leadership Priority
Healthy data underpins agility, resilience, and innovation. Treating data as a living system, not a static asset—positions organizations to lead, not lag.
Ready to Act?
If your organization hasn’t reviewed its data health recently, now’s the time. Treat data as the dynamic, strategic asset it is—one that needs regular care to drive performance, AI-readiness, and long-term value.