The industry reports that analytics adoption is at a standstill and that investors have not yet enjoyed their investments’ long-term benefits. In order to increase the adoption of analytics, a data-driven culture must be embedded within the company. Just a quarter of companies report meeting their objectives to foster a data culture and build a data-driven organization.
While these trends are apparent, top executives are investing more than ever in business intelligence in order to stay ahead of the curve.
How to Bridge the Gap
A lack of leadership example is a problem at the company level. As a result, they do not use data and analytics. This has led to a failure to adopt data-driven approaches to their work. Due to this, the entire business neglects intelligence that could provide valuable strategic insights, revenue opportunities, and strategies to increase growth and speed past the competition.
A New Definition of Being Data-driven
Historically, we have assumed that data-driven companies only use technology, mostly charts, dashboards, and other tools to display information. Millions of dollars have been invested in enrolling employees in analytics courses, data science certificates, and training them on how to query a database, but it wasn’t as fruitful as expected.
Being Data-driven in the Future
It is imperative that executives establish a new vision for what it means for their organization to be an intelligence-driven organization. Advocating for an organizational culture that values analytics as a primary practice is important. They need to redefine how they define “data-driven” as well.
A data-driven mindset goes far beyond the concept of “bring charts to meetings” or “make decisions based on numbers.” Hypothesis-driven leadership means developing a culture in which theories are identified, tested, and thoroughly disproved while rapidly implementing those that prove successful. Our decisions need to be driven by facts.
Lower Entry Barriers for Data Adoption
For analytics to be adopted more widely, the barrier for entry must be lower. For instance, insights must be brought to the point of decision rather than people being expected to seek out new information. By tradition, users had to peruse dashboards, submit data requests, or wait for reports before making informed decisions. Providing analytics insights in new ways is critical if we want users to test different ideas and make quick decisions based on data whenever necessary. Rather than creating a new decision-making destination, we need to bring the data to the user directly in their business toolbox.
Take Control of Your Data Leadership
The final step is for executive leaders to take the lead on analytics adoption and become the chief evangelists. The best data-driven business strategists use a range of skills that are multidisciplinary – experiential, creative, and analytical. As we move into the era of data-driven decision-making, we must prompt the change at the top of the organization.
