By Chris Mazzei and Gaurav Gupta | July 18, 2016 5:30 am |
In a very short period of time, Analytics has become a star in business management models. However, despite the widespread recognition that the power of analysis is the basis for decision making, we see the lack of investment in the organizational change necessary for companies to truly become data based.
In many companies we find that organizational designs are still immature and executives do not always appreciate how the analysis will fundamentally change business processes and human behavior. Our survey found that only 31 percent of companies have significantly restructured their operations to put the data within their organization.
For each decision that needs to be made, analyzes can help provide the answer, but analytics also results in a human being doing something different as a result of the analyzes. This human element of analytics has two key facets – which have the organizational capacity to change, and the alignment of incentives for those who really need to make the change.
Analysis can be a radical and positive engine of change, resulting in cost savings, increased profits, and guide the development of new products and services. However, at a time when the mantra “people are our most important asset” is omnipresent, we continue to observe a curious disconnect between the analysis initiatives and the people whose behavior most affects them. Companies can take the following measures to help solve the lack of analysis connection:
Attention:
Analysis programs require continuous and high level attention. The CEO must be in the technical, organizational and human aspects. Unless analytics becomes part of an organization’s DNA, especially its people, it will never develop its full potential.
Training:
The technological investment of an analysis program must have a corresponding level of investment in the human element. The investment must be in everything from the training of reserved organizational change management units.
Organizational design:
In Analytics success success does not happen overnight. Programs to grow and evolve as human beings adapt and adjust organizational structures. Prioritizing the human element helps prevent costly failures, but even in the best planned deployments take time.
Fundamentally, analytics means a human being will have to do something different, and that change is difficult. But if companies are going to seize the opportunity once in a decade that the analytics present to leave competitors behind, they must treat the human element of analytics as important as technical implementation. After all, Analytics statistics that are not acted upon or operationalizable are usually intellectually interesting, but, almost always, virtually useless.
