Enabling Business Transformation and Growth With a Data-Driven Culture

Using data to drive meaningful business decisions is more than just a buzz phrase, it is the most powerful tool you have in your arsenal to enable smarter decisions, efficiency, and focus.? But the power in data is not the data itself, it is in the discipline and strength of understanding where and when to use it. ?

In the early days of my career, in the industries I served (mostly information services), content was king.?The ability to amass, curate and distribute as much content as possible was the driving force of our strategy, growth plan and the first KPI in our competitive comparisons.? People were the lynchpin, creating and molding the content into usable outputs and reports that drove business decisions for the clients we served.? As information service and content services evolved, we began to understand that content on its own wasn’t enough.? To drive meaningful business decisions, the strategy became about delivering the right content, at the right time, exactly where our clients needed it (most often in whatever workflow they were engaged).? In that sense, information services was rightfully one of the industries at the forefront of the explosion of the recognition and need for content in decision-making.? Content became “data”, the raw driving force of almost every business decision.

Today, data is everywhere.? From the platforms we use to manage every facet of our customer interactions, to publicly available (and not so public) data easily accessible to everyone with an internet connection, to surveys, commercial lists and curated data streams, we have more access to customer and industry dynamics than ever before.? On top of this, AI and ever-improving technology around data tracking are helping to create a vivid view of markets and users.? We use data to drive sales success and focus, understand user behavior, improve customer satisfaction, inform new and existing product development, assess and attack new markets, and improve operational efficiencies.? It is absolutely the most important tool you have to enable change and transformation.

Think of your data as a palette. ?You are the painter trying to tell a story on the canvas. The more colors you have access to, the broader your insight, creativity and power can potentially be in creating the clearest picture. ?It doesn’t mean you need to start with every color. A good artist can blend colors together to create whatever hue they need.? And paint alone doesn’t create a picture. The platforms you use to track and organize the data, AI, and web-enabled technologies are your brushes. ?Your Job is to make sure that what shows up on your canvas is meaningful to you, your teams, and your customers. Data must be used carefully, or you run the risk of splattering all your paint on your canvas, and producing something that isn’t useful. Or worse still, becoming so intimidated by the array of colors in your palette that you can’t make heads or tails of what colors to use, lose your focus and miss your opportunity to paint a vivid picture.

We are all learning. Everyone is building and changing their view on software and platforms, AI, reporting, and tracking tools as quickly as they can, but slower than the tools are evolving. With all that change, I’ve humbly noted a few concepts as universal and timeless as we all look to improve.

Use Every Tool Available to You, but Don’t Wait for Perfection

Informed and forward organizations are expanding their use of platforms to harness the power of information.? AI experts, data scientists, sales operations specialists and programmers are behind them building better and more intelligent data streams.? Many organizations are selecting ecosystems like Salesforce to drive more data to a single “point of truth”.? Other organizations are at different stages of their journey.? As a leader, it doesn’t really matter where you are at, it matters where you are going.? Be an advocate in your organization for positive change.? Use every tool in your arsenal, raise your hand, and take part aggressively in every conversation you can to expand the use of the data and challenge decisions when they are not backed by quantifiable information.? Make “show me the data” part of your vernacular and challenge every statement about what markets and customers need or want if it isn’t backed by data.? NEVER use the lack of platforms or technology as an excuse to make decisions without that data.? “We don’t have that data”, or “those systems don’t talk to each other” are barriers in the way of insight.? Don’t stop at the barrier.? Find a way around.? A smart leader once reminded me that allied forces landed at Normandy in 1944 (one of the most advanced logistical operations in history) with 7,000 ships, and 195,000 people from eight countries without a laptop. Find a way to use the data you have.? Similarly, don’t wait for perfection in your actual data set.? Data is messy, organic and beautifully complex. It will almost never be perfect.? It is far more important to set a benchmark, and track consistently against that benchmark than wait for a perfect data set or view you will rarely get.

It’s All About Linkage.

Data is powerful.? The explosion of tools and resources have made it easier than ever to track and report on a regular basis. Daily (or hourly) flashes of sales figures, customer satisfaction and retention, outages, response times, complaints, wins and losses barrage our inboxes. These data points are important, and shape many of our KPI’s.? But the real value comes from linking data together.? Customer complaints are a valuable data source.? But customer complaints correlated to outages, market events, feature releases, time of day, and type of issue create a much clearer picture of what matters most, and how you can address and mitigate the most important challenges or exploit the clearest opportunities as a priority.? The power of platforms to amass more and more of this information together, so that it can be cross-referenced and tracked together creates ever expanding opportunities for insight.?? Never be satisfied with the data you have.? Always be thinking about how it can be linked to foster ever-improving visibility.

Don’t Get Overwhelmed

It’s easy to get overwhelmed with the amount of data available to us.? The key is to prioritize and focus on the data that will help you move forward faster. This is sometimes an iterative journey. You may have to analyze several different streams before finding the answer for you- there is no silver bullet answer to building KPIs and meaningful data outputs. What may be right for one organization and market may be wrong for another.? ?You need to figure out what works for you and focus. Be the artist who paints a meaningful picture with three primary colors vs the person who tries to throw every paint color on their palette onto the canvas.

As With Every Facet of Business, it is About People.

Data is critical. But the insight, passion, experience and drive will always come from your people. ??Never let the power of data cloud this view.? Listen to your teams when they tell you the data is telling the wrong story, or only one part of the story.? They may have something.? If nothing else, open engagement and conversation helps teams feel part of the journey. At best, the open dialogue will help them better understand the power they can leverage or help identify a hole in your data program.? As with systems, all people are at different stages in their embrace of data-driven decision making. Make every team member part of the journey.? Align your goals, incentives, and recognition to reward people as they embark and continue that journey. ??The right processes are just as important as the right data, and you need your people to embrace and drive those processes.? That said, if you have someone who is resistant to using data, willfully or lazily sabotages your mandate with bad data (garbage in, garbage out) or holds onto old processes and systems at the expense of positive change, it is your obligation to act.? Organizations cannot survive without constant change and evolution to their data programs, and those that think otherwise are blockers to progress.

Data-driven decision making is critical in your role as a leader and team member. It is one of the most powerful tools we have to create and sustain insight that drives positive business change.? Use the right data at the right time, focus on what works for your organization, and embrace the power of people in your journey.

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