Spreadsheet: better than nothing, but is there nothing better?

Spreadsheets are amazing, aren’t they? You can use it from the comfort of your home, it gets things done, makes you feel productive and organised – what a dreamy combination! It is undeniably a great tool and has supported us all in one way or another, let it be our professional careers or university projects: you name it, a spreadsheet has most likely seen it all. Spreadsheets have calculated budgets, collected pros and cons before a break-up, prepared us for a presentation or helped us organise data – the possibilities are endless. Simply put, a spreadsheet is like pasta; everyone loves it in one form or another. Contrary to popular belief, it is not limited to simple calculations. Spreadsheets can provide support in a variety of fields: for instance, in planning a city-wide fibre optics network or in helping a start-up with necessary planning. As you can see, this paragraph is not against the power that spreadsheets hold over us, mortals always in search for answers. But… – yes, unfortunately, there is a but part –, even spreadsheets have a weak spot.

If recent politics have shown us anything, it is that in certain situations working from your own, personal facts instead of a transparent, single source of truth, can lead to a series of unfortunate events. Spreadsheets give us alternative facts. Of course, having personalised facts can be a great asset in certain situations, like winning an argument over why it is essential that this year’s Christmas tree is red-themed. On the other hand, if you use a spreadsheet for your strategy deployment, you will no doubt run into a couple of issues. Why? No matter how hard you try and paint in a spreadsheet, even if you are an amazing artist, it just won’t work. Doing strategy deployment in spreadsheets is sort of the same thing – it doesn’t matter if you are the best of the best, it will not give you the results that you have oh-so brilliantly envisioned. In strategy deployment it is key that everybody is on the same page, and everybody is working from the same set of facts. Spreadsheets can’t do that. Even the great Jack Welch – former chairman and CEO of General Electric – has allegedly coined the phrase “if you don’t believe my numbers, you are fired” – alluding to the many versions of truths, thus chaos a spreadsheet can represent in a company. Despite his efforts, even Welch couldn’t completely eradicate the use of spreadsheets from GE, and with that, committing the ultimate crime according to him: wasting thousands of man hours. Let’s learn from Mr. Welch’s wise words, and see an alternative to spreadsheets, when it comes to strategy deployment.

GKN – a leading supplier within the high-tech industry – took a step outside the spreadsheet box and joined the ValueMiner family to upgrade their road mapping toolset to reach their strategic goals. What can ValueMiner do, that a spreadsheet can’t? Fair question, let me explain.

Having all relevant data accessible is essential for any business. But what does data mean without context? It is sarcasm disguised as a compliment. It raises more questions instead of providing the answers. ValueMiner creates connection. A system harmonising all relevant data, everything shown with interdependencies and in context. To get tangible, this can save you millions on projects not started and valuable time on not having to revisit the same logic multiple times. For once, everybody is on the same page when it comes to planning facts and figures! A single source of truth, accessible for everyone, every day. When every piece of information and all your departments are on one AI-based platform, life becomes easier and simply put, you get one step ahead of the herd.?Is it perfect? Nothing human-made is. But with everybody on the same page, not wasting time on collecting data, we have the resources to work towards perfection – together, with you! Be like GKN and start seeing the big picture with ValueMiner’s bespoke AI software services. Automated excellence, real results, with you – for you! This is ValueMiner.