The Wild West of Data (When Everyone Does Whatever They Want)

Sales has their own definition of "customer." Marketing has a different one. Finance has a third. Three teams, three different numbers for "total customers." Executives get confused. Trust erodes. Every meeting turns into a definitional debate instead of a decision-making session. Or worse: anyone can access any data, PII is flying around in Slack, compliance is a nightmare, and you're one audit away from a massive fine. It's the Wild West—no rules, no standards, no control. It's like a manufacturing plant where every shift uses different specs for the same product. Some batches are perfect, some are disasters, and nobody knows which is which until customers complain.