Data Strategy with a twist – there can be only one!

The link between data strategy and Highlander lies in the famous tagline of the 1986 fantasy action-adventure starring Christopher Lambert as Connor MacLeod. If you are of my generation, you might still recall it:

“𝑻𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒄𝒂𝒏 𝒐𝒏𝒍𝒚 𝒃𝒆 𝒐𝒏𝒆.”

This also applies to strategy. Strategy must be singular—there can only be one strategy that defines how an organization gains a competitive advantage and wins in the market against its competitors. This is your business or corporate strategy.

As a consequence, having a supplementary data strategy that amends your business strategy by stating how your organization can use data, analytics, and AI to create business value and gain a competitive edge is not something your organization should aim for. However, this is a typical misconception of data strategy, which I frequently encounter.

What are the implications if you approach data strategy in this way?

Misusing the term strategy—which is sharply and clearly defined in a business context—does not help to bridge the gap between data professionals and executives. This gap is often a challenge when organizations aim to become data-driven and must be addressed for an organization to succeed with data, analytics, and AI. Otherwise you risk losing management buy-in.

Instead, data professionals should support executives in the strategy design process by incorporating ways to win with data and AI directly into the business strategy. It is essential to weave data-related strategic choices into the very fabric of your business strategy, blending strategy design with data use case innovation and development.

This approach ensures a coherent and integrated set of choices—the desired target state for any effective strategy. How this can be achieved in detail is the topic of my latest Medium article; see the comments for details.

So remember: 𝑻𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒄𝒂𝒏 𝒐𝒏𝒍𝒚 𝒃𝒆 𝒐𝒏𝒆.

What is your perspective on this?