The way the world sees and manages data privacy has been subject to a massive shake up in the past two years. And while data privacy has always been on the agenda of truly customer-focused organisations, it’s heartening to see that data privacy is now a boardroom priority for every business. Privacy isn’t just a compliance concern; it has broader implications for the business. It’s data that drives competitive differentiation and companies that take privacy seriously are five times more likely to have their customers entrust their data to them, which in turn helps drive key strategic business initiatives, such as customer experience, supply chain optimisation, new product and services innovation. While data protection has become more engrained into corporate culture, due in part to regulation, it’s frustrating to see many businesses put data privacy governance on the back burner, as they consider it a ‘nice to have’, rather than a necessity. Businesses are failing to appreciate that data governance is the bedrock for data privacy. Focusing on data privacy governance aligns an organisation to drive business value, by providing best practices for discovering data, who’s using it, who it belongs to; understanding risks for prioritising remediation; and protecting personal data exposure as the key to building trust with consumers. In reality, data governance enables greater data democratisation while supporting data privacy. By putting de-sensitised data insights into the hands of data-driven leaders and subject matter experts from across the lines of business and IT, as opposed to just one data scientist, businesses can empower employees to utilise data-led insights to collaborate and deliver successful outcomes that build trust and improve customer experience. Those businesses for which data privacy governance is already a well-understood and organisational competency are gaining the edge in their market. They’re the ones that can comply with regulations, rely on accurate analytics, power customer experience initiatives, migrate to public cloud safely, and optimise business processes for greater efficiencies.  Read Less