The Duplicate Dealer™

The Duplicate Dealer is everywhere. He shows up in enterprise systems, customer records, supplier files, reports, contact lists — and yes, even on my phone.

Two records. Two versions. Two different answers.

But duplicate data is rarely just a “bad data” problem. It is usually a data stewardship problem.

What process allowed the duplicate to be created? Who owns that process? What controls should have stopped it? How are you governing the record after it enters the system? And when the bad bunny shows up, what is the action plan?

Because deleting one duplicate does not solve the problem if the process keeps creating more. You need a way to:

• Match the records.
• Merge them correctly.
• Monitor for the next one.
• Fix the process that created them.

And this does not change without leadership. Someone has to assign ownership. Someone has to enforce the process. Someone has to make stewardship part of the job, not an optional cleanup activity.

Bad data is often the evidence. Bad stewardship is the crime. And leadership is what changes the outcome.