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By Andrew Nisbett, Principal Consultant, 1 June 2020

Data can provide the confidence you need to gain endorsement for an idea, strategy or key decision, or validate a plan to mitigate and manage business risk. Similarly, but no less importantly, data may invalidate an idea and therefore help you avoid making critical mistakes.

It’s not unusual for experienced leaders to rely on intuition coupled with strong domain expertise to identify ways to solve problems or generate new business ideas. Decision making and action based on gut feel alone in today’s economic climate can, however, be disastrous. This is where using data, together with insights and analytical thinking, comes in.

The application of data analytics to drive decision-making spans all industries from global fast-moving consumer goods, organisations making investment decisions about marketing campaigns or understanding the success (or otherwise) of those investments, energy organisations forecasting how they can most efficiently and cost effectively meet the demand / supply curve, manufacturers wanting to reduce costs of ongoing maintenance on plant and equipment, financial institutions ensuring decisions minimise risk whilst producing desired yield, and any number of organisations, large or small, seeking ways to deliver an overall better customer experience to increase revenue.

The use of data and analytical thinking to enable informed executive decision-making is only limited by our ability to ask the right questions, gather supporting information and create meaningful insights. The benefits of taking a data-driven approach include:

1. Enables confidence in decisions to take a particular action or allocate resources (funding, plant and equipment or human resources).
2. Enables empirical evidence for organisational agility and flexibility. Is a particular strategy or campaign working? Is it generating the desired outcomes? Are our customers satisfied? Are we genuinely competitive? Are we focusing on the right things? If not, what decisions can be made to pivot, change direction or divert our scarce resources?
3. Enables prioritisation of different ideas or strategies, elevating those that generate the greatest business benefits or maximise the chances for success.
4. Improves operational efficiency and effectiveness. Data can be used to clearly identify opportunities for improvement, and measures to determine whether improvements are being realised.
5. Drives data-driven culture throughout an organisation. When leaders demonstrate the right behaviours, and then encourage their employees to also use data and analytical thinking in their decision-making, it creates confidence and trust in all levels of the business.

In an increasingly fast-paced and competitive world, leaders in more organisations are understanding the critical importance of making informed business decisions based on data-driven evidence. When you have reliable and meaningful insights into the right data it can make a huge difference to your decision-making.

As experts in data and analytics, intelia has a proven track record helping customers gain control over their data, unlocking its potential to develop actionable insights for enabling better decisions and driving real business value. Contact us to see how we can help your business realise its data potential.