Return on Data (ROD) is the value an organisation actually realises from what it knows, expressed in decisions changed, actions taken and outcomes moved — not in reports produced.
ROD is deliberately harder to argue than ROI. It requires a baseline, an intervention and an outcome, per decision domain. Adoption counts, dashboard counts and model counts are not ROD; they are the activity that hopes to produce it.
Zero-Gravity measures ROD through a five-instrument model — ROI, ROD, DAL, ARL and the Evidence Pack — that turns claimed value into demonstrated value. Every engagement is designed to leave behind an ROD trail the organisation can defend without the consultant in the room.