Data Strategy is Business Strategy: Changing Conversations about Data Management To remain both competitive and compliant, organizations need consistent approaches for how to understand and consume data, what to collect, and how to manage it. They must also shape their culture around these practices. This paper will provide recommendations in three areas. First, it will advocate for the treatment of data as an asset and explore the origins of conventional approaches to data inventory and how to modernize them. Second, it will examine the problems and impacts that result from how the technology industry characterizes “the data problem” and provide an alternative method of framing conversations around organizational data landscapes to improve understanding and governance. Finally, it will provide insights into the importance of aligning a data strategy to a business strategy and why culture – not just tooling – is key to success. Lachance, Sarah Creator Freedman, Linn Advisor Brown University School of Professional Studies and Department of Computer Science Sponsor 2020 26 p. born digital Capstone (EMCS)--Brown University, 2020 Cybersecurity Big data Privacy Data management Digital transformation text Critical Challenge Project English In Copyright All rights reserved. Collection is open for research. 10.26300/1zv7-z871