Creating a Culture of Data-Driven Decision Making

In a fast-paced, data-dominated world, you cannot afford to make business decisions based on gut feelings anymore. This also calls for creating a culture of data-driven decision making to pursue your organizational goals with confidence and greater certainty.

No doubt, business leaders today recognize the importance of data. However, it’s not unusual to see that many companies still lack the capabilities to make decisions using data analytics.

Big Data and data management technologies are no longer just fancy trends but are being embraced at a faster pace!

This also means:

• Businesses that fail to adopt the latest tools and resources for data analysis will lag behind.

• To take advantage of data insights, you need to have an organizational culture where data is valued and seen as a real asset.

Here are the top five ways you can develop a culture of data-driven decision making within your company:

1.Establish Key Metrics for Success

First up, it is very important to define your key metrics. Ask yourself, what really needs to happen to make your business a success?

Suppose you are a fashion retailer launching a new product line.

From your sales department to your offline and/or digital marketing team, everybody should be on the same page about your company’s goals. Once you have identified key metrics, you can convey this message across the board.

In cases of underperformance, you can easily pinpoint issues, home in on the root cause, improve what you do and take a better approach moving forward.

2.Democratise Data for Insight-Led Decisions

The use of data should not just be limited to the tech guys in your company. Each member of your staff should be given tools and resources to understand data and take relevant action.

With advanced software technology, data democratization has become quite easy. By empowering your employees in technology, you are creating citizen data scientists – people who can be of great value to your organization in future.

3.Measure Everything; Foster Data-Backed Decision Making

To cultivate a data-driven culture, you need to measure (almost) everything and know their interrelationships. It would be great if the particular aspect can be quantified. If not, make sure you assign a value to it.

A probable piece of information is always better than no information at all.

Such an initiative will help foster a right data-led mindset among your employees from top to bottom. It will entrench itself deeply into their personal work culture, ultimately benefiting the company as well.

4.Enhance Reports and Dashboards

Long boring spreadsheets have given way to interactive, colorful dashboards. This has been an interesting evolution in the world of data.

• These dashboards and their associated visualizations are far more accessible.

• They engage with and help people interact with data. And understand it better!

• These information management tools allow users to explore and embrace the various possibilities that data brings forth.

So, make sure your dashboard and reporting mechanisms are appealing, and that they do help users make sense of data and align to your key measures.

What’s more, they should operate in real-time so that your staff can make instant decisions.

We at Centelli offer business intelligence (BI) and data management consultancy as one of our services. Our team of data scientists and BI experts can help you to transform your data-driven decision making. Drop us a line for more info or any questions you might have.