Support Data-Driven Decision-Making IN ORDER TO FULLY CAPITALIZE ON BIG DATA, companies certainly need to
recruit and retain deep analytical talent. But they also need to adopt new approaches to decision-making and management.14 This may be easier said than done.
Executives still rely more on experience, intuition, and advice than data to make COMPANIES USING BIG DATA FOR INNOVATION ARE
36%
more likely to beat the competition.
According to IBM’s 2014 innovation survey of more than a thousand business leaders, companies whose innovation processes are driven by data and analytics are 36% more likely to outperform their competitors in revenue growth and operating efficiency.
significant business decisions that have enormous impact on their organizations.
According to a recent survey conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit, barely one-third of executives said they relied primarily on data and analytics when they made their last big decision.15
Organizations are not designed to be data driven yet. They have lots of data, but they don’t know how to leverage it.” Liu Qiao, Technical Director, Software, Electronics and Mechanical Systems Laboratory, 3M
Thanks to data and powerful analytics, business leaders can measure and know more about their businesses than ever before. This leads to better predictions and smarter
decisions.16 For example, using data to test different scenarios before making a deci-
Source: Marshall, Anthony, Stefan Mueck, and Rebecca Shockley, 2015. “How Leading Organizations Use Big Data and Analytics to Innovate.” Strategy & Leadership. 40 (5): 32-39.
sion makes perfect sense. But organizations trying to integrate data and analytics with decision-making face enormous cultural challenges and inertia.17
Executives who want to change the culture into one that is data driven should start by asking, “What does the data say?” and then follow with, “Where did the data
come from?” and “What kinds of analyses were conducted and how confident are we 14
McAfee, Andrew, and Erik Brynjolfsson. 2012. “Big Data:
The Management Revolution.” Harvard Business Review. 90 (10): 60-68. 15
DiFilippo, Don, and Paul Blase. 2014. “Gut & Gigabytes:
Capitalizing on the Art and Science of Decision Making.” PwC. 2014. http://ow.ly/KAcl300vaby (Accessed 23 May 2016) 16
McAfee, Andrew, and Erik Brynjolfsson. 2012.
17
Buluswar, Muruli, et al. 2016. “How Companies are Using
Big Data and Analytics.” McKinsey & Company. http:// ow.ly/aqw8300v2ce (Accessed 23 May 2016)
8
18
McAfee, Andrew, and Erik Brynjolfsson. 2012.
19
DiFilippo, Don, and Paul Blase. 2014.
BATTEN BRIEFING INNOVATORS’ ROUNDTABLE REPORT
in the results?”18
As more companies are using data and analytics to make faster and better decisions,
business leaders should be aware of potential pitfalls. When it comes to big datasets, it is possible to find correlation between any pair of unrelated variables. Sometimes,
experts say, data needs to be ignored. Therefore, in order to makes sense of big datasets, expertise and experience will remain critical.19