A few months ago at the Gartner MDM Summit, I met the head of information management at MillerCoors. He recalled the challenges he faced in explaining to executives of America’s second-largest beer company why it needed master data management.

He came up with a pitch-perfect analogy.

“We make two things—beer and data,” he told executives. “We need to manage our product supply chain and our information supply chain equally efficiently.”

I love that quote because it underscores a truth in all industries—every business is an information business. Whether you make beer or diapers, automobiles or annuities, seamless integration of all information flowing through a company is key to meeting customer needs and gaining competitive advantage. (more…)