Your Data Team Is Running a Leaking Portfolio. Most Executives Have No Idea.

Retirement of old dashboards is no longer a "cleanup task"; it is a liquidation of a negative-return position.

Throughout my data career, I’ve had this conversation more times than I can count. It usually starts with the Finance Controller, then moves to the CFO, and eventually escalates to the CTO and CEO.

In most cases, this is the exact moment every data professional starts counting the days until “the letter” arrives, the one that relieves them of their duties.

It always comes down to one question:

“If I cut your budget by 30% tomorrow, which 30% of your portfolio would you liquidate?”

For a long time, I couldn’t answer it. I know most data leaders still can’t today. It isn’t a lack of competence. It’s because we’ve been taught to treat data as a cost center rather than as an asset. We’ve been given tools to build data products (OKRs/Agile/Scrum), but no system to manage the Capital Asset after it ships.

That gap is turning your data IP into a liability.