Unpopular Opinions Series: “May Excel be with you…forever”

Based on some recent posts, today I’m aiming to trigger some of the very basic discussions you should have when embarking on your #digitaltransformation. Wait, what? Why are you talking about Excel then? Isn’t #digitaltransformation supposed to replace Excel once and for all in my company? Precisely…no, it shouldn’t.

It is indeed very common to have #digitaltransformation associated with that kind of thinking, and “getting rid of Excel” becoming the motto and one of the key expected outcomes of most digitalization initiatives, as if it were the only fundamental reason for all our current #digitalmiseries. It is obviously not, but why has the myth gotten this far?

I personally believe Excel is a wonderful tool, by no means being the best tool for everything or even anything at all. Being used by some 0.5-1.5 billion people and with almost 70% of companies considering it a vital tool, it’s hard to understand why it would be tagged as the #digitaldevil itself. All my biases make me think it’s clearly a marketers’ tactic (1.5 billion potential buyers for whatever replacement they sell!!!), but even so, it has to be fueled and sustained by something else, and that something else -I think- is no other than basic human nature. Let's try something: honestly answer these questions and track your score (Yes = 1 / No = 0):

1. Have you ever had any formal Excel training at and by your current company?
2. Do you have any defined rules to name Excel files?
3. Do you understand and have clearly defined guidelines for using the different Excel file types (csv, xls, xlsx, xlsm, xlsb, etc)?
4. Do you have a central unified repository for Excel files?
5. Do you share Excel file links instead of directly attaching a copy of the file to emails?
6. Do you apply any change tracking, auditting, and version control for Excel files?
7. Do you have any standards or best practices for Excel use implemented throughout the organization?
8. When using VBA macros, do you use the likes of GIT to manage the code? Do you at least document the macro?
9. (*) Do you have QA/QC processes in place to ensure business-related spreadsheets are doing what they should?

I could go on and on with this kind of questions, but I’m sure you are ashamed enough already. If you scored at least 1 in this test, you are already ahead in the top group of the best Excel users. If you scored 2 or more, you are either a weirdo, or qualify to work in #datamanagement…in which case you are probably a weirdo too ??

The point I’m trying to make here is very straightforward: with all its strengths and weaknesses, like any other tool, there’s nothing wrong with Excel; it’s a magnificent tool and the most profitable business in the world run on it. What’s its problem then? You are.

Its flexibility and lack of constraints directly face some of our worst traits: our tendency to minimum effort (not defining and implementing the required processes) and our lack of discipline (to follow them, when/if they exist)…and sorry to burst your bubble, there’s no sustainable technological solution for that. You may experience short-term improvements with some tools, but in the long run, your poor habits will take you exactly where you deserve to be.

So, the usual closing summary:

1. Excel is a wonderful tool, an engineering marvel if you ask me: why should it take any blame for your faulty use?
2. Even so, nothing is the best alternative for everything: there is indeed room for other specialized tools.
3. Don’t be so na?ve to think switching tools -alone- is the solution: your lack of processes and/or discipline to follow them still needs to be fixed.
4. Excel is not going anywhere; learn to live with, not to die from it: even where replaced, it will always find ways to creep back in, I promise.
5. There’s no buying your way out of it: this is the "people" part of the #transformation, and it's 100% about hard work and uncomfortable change.

If “Project #LackOfDiscipline – Mod. Scope - Final_Report 20230923 – draft – v.1.0.5_comments_CCF 24-Sep-2023 (no macro).xlsm” rings some bells, maybe it's time to get your stuff together. Walk the talk. Make #digitaltransformation about what you know it has to be: people.

Now, even when you don't see it -yet-, this is some of the value adding stuff I promised in my previous articles; it’s not sexy, doesn’t have the AI word in it, doesn’t require you to hire expensive consultants, or buy anything…but there’s tons of replicable value in it. Unfortunately, 99% of you will choose to ignore it –despite feeling 100% identified with the situation- and buy some shiny new software instead. Let me know how it goes, I’ll wait.

PD: Hey, Satya Nadella , I’m doing you a solid here. I’m always open to work and fancy a career in technology, by the way??

?(*) Good place to start. It is estimated that roughly 80% of spreadsheets contain some sort of error, and your organization is no exception.