What is data governance?

Data governance is how a business decides what its data means, who owns it, who may use it and how its quality is kept. IBM, which sells governance software, calls it "the data management discipline that focuses on the quality, security and availability of an organization's data". In practice it is a set of decisions and the people who make them.

What large firms report

The 2026 AI and Data Leadership Executive Benchmark Survey, by Randy Bean, asks senior data leaders at Fortune 1000 and leading global organisations what holds back data and AI adoption. It found that "the highest-ever percentage in this survey (93%) pointed to human issues" as the key challenge. "Only 7% blamed technology". These are firms with mature tooling: 90% of them have a chief data officer, and "Almost 90% feel that safeguards and governance for AI are in place".

Small businesses are different

That finding may not transfer. In our view, a small timber business can't enforce a definition held in a spreadsheet anyone can edit, or trace a change in a system with no history. For a small business, some of the barrier is technical after all.

AI raises the stakes

AI tools use whatever definitions and access they are given. Governance now has to cover what AI tools may read, what they may change, and whose definitions they use.

A small version

Without a data office, governance can still be simple. Give each important measure, such as volume, cost and margin, one owner and a written definition. Do the same for shared identifiers such as contract and customer codes. Set a rule for who may change master data and prices, and a list of what AI tools may access.

What it isn't

Governance isn't a committee that meets without deciding, and it isn't a tool, though tools help. The owners need to meet, briefly, whenever a measure is disputed or a system is replaced.

Quarri for finance and strategy teams is built for the people who close the month, explain the margin and answer the board.

Quarri is an AI-native data platform for the timber supply chain. It connects buying, production, sales and inventory for forest management, sawmill, wood products and pulp, paper and packaging operators.