Question

Aligning Technology with Strategy DP

In God we trust. All others bring data” (former CEO Barry Beracha). To become an Analytics Competitor, explain why or why not each of the following steps outlined in the HBR article, Competing on Analytics, are worthwhile to pursue? Please cite examples from your own professional experience.

Champion Analytics from the Top

Create a Single Analytics Initiative

Focus your Analytics Initiative

Establish an Analytics Culture

Hire the Right People

Implement the Right Technology

Answer 1

Introduction: -

Over the years, companies as big as the likes of Amazon and Google have understood one key thing about being able to expand their operations and enable themselves to work in a dynamic environment. It is through the use of analytics and data which is available.

Companies use data for various cross functions such as product development, Artificial Intelligence and understanding the needs and desires of the customer in a better manner so that they can increase the sales of their products as well as their market share and other similar dynamics.

There are examples of companies such as Tesla, Facebook and Google, the profit for which arises only and only because of the way they collect, decipher and use data to their own advantage.

Accordingly, all the points of the case study are as Highlighted.

Case Specifics: -

There have been numerous articles which have highlighted the importance of data analytics in many different ways. For reference the following have been answered.

(1)  Champion Analytics from the Top

Championing Analytics from the top basically refers to the strategy in which analytics helps the top management in achieving their goals by helping them in the very exercise of decision making and then continuing this strategy to an extent that one can become a pioneer in the industry for the same.

When decision making is driven not by instincts but by data analytics, it can help the firm in gaining insight quickly and taking corrective action whenever and wherever possible for business and stake holders respectively.

Therefore, it is important that an organization implements data analytics in a way that the top stake holders use them in their decision making and can lead the company in the overall industry as well.

(2) Create a Single Analytics Initiative

Whenever companies establish an analytics initiative, it is important to avoid clutter and the use of different techniques to collect different sources of data. This makes the data difficult to interpret and impossible for companies to analyse. For example, sales figures and profit margins should all be in the same currency or else collecting the data would not add value until conversion and this would also cause unnecessary delay.

Therefore, ensuring that all the data which is collected for analysis is on one single platform is an essential task which companies must ensure and follow.

(3) Focus your Analytics Initiative

It is important to limit a company’s initiative towards analytics to key areas where problems may be arising or where our company may require corrections. A company which is running thin on capital cannot extensively spend money on analytics on all areas. You need to be conservative in your approach when implementing analytics. You need to be sure of the areas in which you put in your resources so that the benefits of this investment outweigh the expenditure that you make.

(4) Establish an Analytics Culture

Implementation of analytics is tough if your staff does not embed by that culture. Analytics is much more than collection of data without a purpose. Top companies such as Apple and Google regularly monitor and try to analyse customer responses for a reason. To improve the offerings in the market and to understand the problems which customers are facing.

But to be able to do that we need a culture in the organization in which critical information is collected by us and can be used in the best possible manner.

(5) Hire the Right People

To ensure success for any organization, it is important to hire the right people at our work place. People without an analytical bend of mind would not be able to add much value to an organization.

Over the years companies have preferred to hire those that have brought in insight to business as without the same one cannot expect good results from analytics itself.

(6) Implement the Right Technology

Analytics is ever expanding. It uses different techniques to analyse different sources of data at a given point of time. The implementation of the right technology and technique becomes necessary as we do not want to overshoot our targets and budgets.

For example, various analytics techniques such as Artificial Intelligence, Power BI and others exist but however for smaller companies which are just trying to implement these strategies, MS-Excel may be all that they need to be able to establish their analytics journey. Therefore, decision making regarding which technique is to be used is an important element.

Please feel free to ask your doubts in the comments section if any.