
The opportunities made available by Big Data are truly mind-boggling. For years retailers and other consumer facing businesses had dreamt of being able to know about their customers’ likes and how best to communicate with them. Suddenly the big data revolution in the past few years has offered a paradise of information to help answer these questions, in ways that companies in the 20th century couldn’t even comprehend.
But for many in the products and services industries, it feels like progress in using Big Data to answer these critical business questions has ground to a halt. In a survey of senior business leaders at 1800 large companies in North America and Europe, only 4% were classified as being “data elites” and successfully using data to improve business performance, whilst over a quarter reported seeing “no or little benefit” from their initiatives. This trend has been a head-scratcher for many. Although the fruits of Big Data success are clear to all, there is still a mystifying inability to use data effectively. Execution has been far from a formality.
A major contributor to this trend is that companies aren’t changing their culture when introducing these initiatives to ensure that they become true data-driven organisations. It requires a seismic change in the way that companies run when opinions are swapped for evidence – and requires more than just investment.
The supermarket chains have always been at the forefront of using data, with Tesco and Walmart being early trailblazers in using membership cards to glean vital consumer data and harness it to become two of the biggest retailers in the world. But all were upstaged by Amazon.
The Seattle-based company rose from start-up to tech titan in a matter of years, against all the predictions of commentators who believed the monolith of American supermarkets, Walmart, would simply crush them. Their competitive advantage was not that they had more data than the industry incumbents – far from it, they had considerably less. But it was their use of data, and the culture of evidence-based decision making, that was the key to achieving success.
A former employee was quoted on Entrepreneur.com as saying “Bezos’s core innovation was to place data at the center of his corporate culture.” Bezos demanded that all decisions were backed up by strong evidence, not by opinions. This mantra permeated throughout the company; ‘if it can’t be measured, it isn’t worth doing’. He constantly raged against the HIPPO (Highest Paid Person’s Opinion) winning arguments, the invisible force he believes drives decision making at most large corporations.
How can companies become more like Amazon, and develop a data-driven culture – something that will be necessary in the digital age?
Business leaders need to focus on the people, their communications and meetings rather than the data itself. It is the way in which decision making is made that should be most influenced by data, but it is the hardest change to make. Constantly questioning “where is the evidence?” from the C-suite downwards can immediately begin to help employees rethink their use of data.
Setting the expectation of using data is a tough change for any organisation. It is in fact much easier to start a new culture from scratch, as has happened at many tech start-ups. But in the digital age, embracing big data is not a choice – it is a requirement for survival. Building a culture of evidence-based decision making is the foundation that needs to be built.
This article was originally published on www.huffingtonpost.co.uk can be viewed in full


Archive
- October 2024(44)
- September 2024(94)
- August 2024(100)
- July 2024(99)
- June 2024(126)
- May 2024(155)
- April 2024(123)
- March 2024(112)
- February 2024(109)
- January 2024(95)
- December 2023(56)
- November 2023(86)
- October 2023(97)
- September 2023(89)
- August 2023(101)
- July 2023(104)
- June 2023(113)
- May 2023(103)
- April 2023(93)
- March 2023(129)
- February 2023(77)
- January 2023(91)
- December 2022(90)
- November 2022(125)
- October 2022(117)
- September 2022(137)
- August 2022(119)
- July 2022(99)
- June 2022(128)
- May 2022(112)
- April 2022(108)
- March 2022(121)
- February 2022(93)
- January 2022(110)
- December 2021(92)
- November 2021(107)
- October 2021(101)
- September 2021(81)
- August 2021(74)
- July 2021(78)
- June 2021(92)
- May 2021(67)
- April 2021(79)
- March 2021(79)
- February 2021(58)
- January 2021(55)
- December 2020(56)
- November 2020(59)
- October 2020(78)
- September 2020(72)
- August 2020(64)
- July 2020(71)
- June 2020(74)
- May 2020(50)
- April 2020(71)
- March 2020(71)
- February 2020(58)
- January 2020(62)
- December 2019(57)
- November 2019(64)
- October 2019(25)
- September 2019(24)
- August 2019(14)
- July 2019(23)
- June 2019(54)
- May 2019(82)
- April 2019(76)
- March 2019(71)
- February 2019(67)
- January 2019(75)
- December 2018(44)
- November 2018(47)
- October 2018(74)
- September 2018(54)
- August 2018(61)
- July 2018(72)
- June 2018(62)
- May 2018(62)
- April 2018(73)
- March 2018(76)
- February 2018(8)
- January 2018(7)
- December 2017(6)
- November 2017(8)
- October 2017(3)
- September 2017(4)
- August 2017(4)
- July 2017(2)
- June 2017(5)
- May 2017(6)
- April 2017(11)
- March 2017(8)
- February 2017(16)
- January 2017(10)
- December 2016(12)
- November 2016(20)
- October 2016(7)
- September 2016(102)
- August 2016(168)
- July 2016(141)
- June 2016(149)
- May 2016(117)
- April 2016(59)
- March 2016(85)
- February 2016(153)
- December 2015(150)