One thing that always puzzled me when starting out with data quality management was just how difficult it was to obtain management buy-in. I've spoken before on this blog of the times I've witnessed considerable financial losses attributed to poor quality met with a shrug of management shoulders in terms of action.

So how can you sell data quality to senior management?

The typical approach is to focus on benefits such as cost reduction, profit increase, faster projects, regulatory compliance, customer satisfaction and various operational efficiencies. But what if none of these are motivating your management team? What else can you try? What else motivates the average manager?

In my experience, there are two constants that all managers desire from the areas they govern:

• Stability
• Predictability

If you are an operations manager for a manufacturing company then you will clearly be concerned about reducing costs but you are also measured by the stability and predictability of the services your team delivers. Productivity needs to be within an acceptable range so that future growth and targets can be predicted accurately.

Think of your organisation. What is the motivation of management? Do they crave faster and cheaper service delivery or do they want to create a predictable, stable outcome?

I found that Statistical Process Control (SPC) charts are an excellent tool for understanding the stability and predictability of a process. SPC charts also help you articulate where improvements can be made and what the impact will be on the organisation (and the manager!). They are also ideal for benchmarking different processes to help find the area of greatest potential benefit.

The moral of this article is that cost reduction or profit increase are not always the most desirable selling points of you data quality initiative. If you're not getting traction, look at where senior management is criticised and align your benefits accordingly.