Leveraging Data: 7 Benefits That Lead to Better Business Decisions

By Marie Monet, CPA, CITP, CGMA

In the modern business environment, data is the new gold. With every click, transaction and interaction, vast amounts of information are generated. But raw data, like unrefined gold, holds little value on its own. It’s only through processing, analyzing and leveraging data that its true potential shines through.

We’ve combined our knowledge with real-world examples from Coca-Cola, Apple and Google to show how your business can harness the power of data. Doing so provides the catalyst for transformative business operations and strategic decisions that propel you toward success.

1. Enhanced Customer Understanding

Leveraging data provides a deep dive into your customer demographics. By analyzing this information, you can better understand your target audience. This data includes age, location, preferences and even purchasing habits.

This data can also help you personalize your marketing efforts. With a clear understanding of customer preferences, businesses can tailor emails, advertisements and other communications. This leads to higher engagement and conversion rates.

2. Optimized Operations:

Data analytics can forecast demand. The resulting supply chain efficiencies help your business optimize inventory levels and reduce carrying costs (as Coca-Cola discovered). Leveraging data also helps you see which business areas generate the most revenue or require the most resources, making resource allocation much more effective.

3. Risk Management and Mitigation:

Data facilitates better predictive analysis, allowing you to anticipate potential challenges like market downturns and operational bottlenecks. You can also use historical data for scenario planning — modeling various scenarios and preparing for multiple eventualities.

4. Financial Insights:

One of the most significant advantages of leveraging data is the cost savings it often provides. Data can highlight inefficiencies or areas of wastage so you can address them and boost your bottom line. Revenue generation is also a benefit since insights into customer preferences can uncover new revenue streams or areas of expansion — something Apple discovered to their great benefit.

5. Enhanced Product Development:

Customer feedback and usage data can guide product development, ensuring that products or services evolve based on user needs. Commonly known as the feedback loop, this process is crucial to keeping up with consumer trends. Additionally, data can be used in market gap analysis to reveal unmet needs in the market, presenting opportunities for innovation and growth.

6. Strategic Decision Making:

Leveraging data provides factual, objective insights for informed decisions, reducing reliance on gut feelings or intuition. Businesses can also compare their performance against competitors, identifying areas of strength and opportunities for improvement. This benchmarking provides the competitive edge so crucial in today’s marketplace.

7. Employee Productivity and Satisfaction:

By leveraging data related to employee performance, businesses can identify training needs or areas of improvement. Google found this out when using performance analytics to evaluate management practices. And don’t forget the importance of feedback mechanisms. Regular employee feedback can provide insights into job satisfaction and areas for organizational improvement.

In the words of W. Edwards Deming, “Without data, you’re just another person with an opinion.” In today’s competitive landscape, opinions and hunches are no longer sufficient. Leveraging data provides the insights and clarity needed for transformative business operations and strategic decisions.

By embracing a data-driven approach, businesses can navigate the complexities of the modern market, ensuring sustainability, growth and success. The future belongs to those who recognize the value of leveraging data and harness its immense potential.

Real-World Example: Coca-Cola and Data-Driven Demand Forecasting

Coca-Cola, one of the world’s most recognized brands, provides a compelling example of leveraging data to forecast demand effectively. Given its vast global presence and diverse product portfolio, accurate demand forecasting is crucial for Coca-Cola’s operations.

Coca-Cola’s product line extends far beyond its classic soda. With various beverages tailored to different regions and constantly evolving consumer preferences, the company needed a sophisticated system to predict demand accurately. Traditional forecasting methods were no longer sufficient in such a complex environment.

The Solution: The company’s data-driven approach included three components.

1. AI and Machine Learning: Coca-Cola began incorporating artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning into its demand forecasting processes. These technologies process vast amounts of data much faster than humans and constantly improve their predictions based on new data.
2. External Data Integration: Instead of just relying on internal sales data, Coca-Cola incorporated external factors into its forecasting models. This includes weather patterns, economic indicators and even social media sentiment. For instance, hotter weather might indicate increased demand for soft drinks. Positive social media sentiment around a new product could hint at higher sales.
3. Localized Forecasting: Recognizing that demand can vary significantly between regions, Coca-Cola adopted a localized approach to forecasting. By analyzing data at a granular level, the company could tailor its production and distribution strategies for specific markets.

The Outcome: Leveraging data helped Coca-Cola achieve several objectives:

• Reduced Wastage: Accurate demand forecasting meant that the company could produce closer to the actual demand, reducing overproduction and minimizing wastage.
• Optimized Inventory: By understanding when and where products would be in demand, Coca-Cola could optimize its inventory levels. This ensured products were available where and when consumers wanted them, without tying up too much capital in unsold stock.
• Increased Efficiency: The insights derived from the data allowed Coca-Cola to streamline its supply chain operations, from production to distribution, leading to cost savings and increased efficiency.

Coca-Cola’s success story underscores the power of data in modern business operations. By leveraging data and technology, the company could anticipate consumer demand with accuracy not attainable with traditional forecasting methods. This not only improved their bottom line but also enhanced customer satisfaction by ensuring their favorite products were always available.

Real-World Example: Apple Inc.’s Evolution From Hardware to Services

Apple Inc., renowned for its innovative hardware products like the iPhone, iPad, and MacBook, provides an illuminating example of how a company can use financial insights to uncover new revenue streams.

The Challenge: Historically, Apple’s primary revenue came from its hardware products, particularly the iPhone. However, as the smartphone market began to saturate and competition increased, growth from hardware sales started to slow down. Apple recognized the need to diversify its revenue sources.

The Solution: By leveraging data on the financial side, Apple noticed a significant and consistent increase in the revenue generated from its services division (which included the App Store, iTunes, and iCloud). Despite the growth slowdown in hardware, the services segment showed promising potential. So the company made a strategic pivot via the following steps:

1. Strengthening the App Store: Apple focused on enhancing its App Store, facilitating developers to create more sophisticated apps and games. This increased revenue from app sales and in-app purchases and made Apple devices more appealing due to the quality and variety of available apps.
2. Apple Music and Video: Recognizing the growing demand for streaming services, Apple launched Apple Music to compete with the likes of Spotify. Later, they also ventured into video with Apple TV+ to tap into the video streaming market.
3. Financial Services: Apple Card, a credit card product, was introduced in partnership with Goldman Sachs. This allowed Apple to enter the financial services sector, adding another revenue stream.
4. Subscription Services: Apple introduced subscription-based services like iCloud for storage and Apple Arcade for gaming. Recurring subscription fees provided a stable and predictable revenue source.
5. Bundled Services with Apple One: To maximize its service offerings, Apple bundled multiple services like Apple Music, Apple TV+, Apple Arcade, and iCloud storage into a single subscription package called Apple One. This encouraged users to subscribe to multiple services, increasing overall revenue.

The Outcome: Leveraging data in a strategic focus on services yielded significant results.

• Diversified Revenue: Apple’s reliance on the iPhone as its primary revenue source decreased. In the fiscal year 2020, services made up around 20% of total revenue — reflecting significant growth from previous years.
• Increased Profit Margins: Services generally have higher profit margins compared to hardware. As the revenue from services grew, so did Apple’s overall profitability.
• Customer Lock-In: With a robust ecosystem of interconnected services, customers found it more compelling to stay within the Apple universe, enhancing brand loyalty.

Apple’s strategic pivot toward services, driven by financial insights, underscores the importance of continuously leveraging data to identify and capitalize on emerging revenue opportunities. Even for a company that revolutionized hardware, future growth potential was found in the realm of digital services.

Real-World Example: Google’s Project Oxygen

Google is known for its innovation and forward-thinking approaches. Its story of leveraging data offers a compelling real-world example of using employee performance data to identify areas of improvement, particularly in management practices.

The Challenge: Google and its engineering-driven culture operated under the belief that managers didn’t significantly impact the performance of engineers. They even experimented with completely eliminating managers at one point. However, as the company grew, the importance of effective management became apparent.

The Solution: In 2008, Google’s People Operations (now called People + AI Research) embarked on a mission called Project Oxygen. The goal was to determine if managers indeed mattered and, if so, what made some more effective than others.

In Google’s case, leveraging data involved the following actions:

1. Gathering Data: Google mined performance appraisals, employee surveys, and other feedback mechanisms to gather a vast amount of data about its managers.
2. Quantitative Analysis: Using this data, they compared the characteristics of the highest and lowest-performing managers.

From this data, Google identified eight key behaviors that were common among its highest-performing managers. Some of these behaviors included:

• Being a good coach
• Empowering the team and refraining from micromanaging
• Showing concern for team members’ success and well-being
• Providing clear communication and feedback

They also identified two behaviors that less effective managers commonly exhibited. They spent too little time managing and communicating, and they lacked a consistent approach to performance and career development.

The Outcome (and Actions Taken):

• Training and Development: Armed with these insights, Google developed new training programs tailored to these findings. Existing managers were trained to develop the positive behaviors identified, and new managers were onboarded with these principles in mind.
• Feedback Mechanisms: Google instituted feedback surveys, known as “Upward Feedback Surveys,” where employees could anonymously provide feedback on their managers based on the eight identified behaviors.
• Improved Performance: Over time, Google saw improvement in managerial performance, leading to more engaged teams and better overall productivity.

Google’s Project Oxygen showcases the power of using employee performance data not just for individual growth but also to shape company-wide strategies. By recognizing the importance of effective management and leveraging data to pinpoint what works, Google was able to foster a more productive and positive work environment. This initiative underscores the idea that even in the most tech-driven environments, human-centric insights remain invaluable.

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