How to Become an Insights-Driven Business

Companies have access to more data than ever before. In the last 15-20 years, data has become more available and much cheaper to store and process. Over 90% of data in the world was generated over the last several years alone. In 2020, it is estimated that 1.7MB of data will be collected every second for every person on earth.  

However, data alone is just data. Less than 0.5% of all data collected has ever been analyzed. The challenge is collecting the right data and turning it into actionable insights that drive success.  Doing so comes with a significant competitive advantage. Leading insight-driven organizations such as Google, Amazon, and Netflix tout annual growth of more than 30%, but the potential benefits extend across industries and maturity levels. In the 2019 survey of over 1000 companies, Deloitte found that advanced insights-driven cultures were more than twice as likely to exceed business goals. Even with the potential benefits, 61% of large organizations are lagging behind. Many still rely on Excel as their main analytics tool.

EASIER SAID THAN DONE

While most organizations strive to become more insights-driven, they face some common barriers.

CULTURE

Organizational culture is make or break for driving any change and establishing an insights-data driven organization is no exception. Some executives find it hard to see the value in analytics or may have spent money in the past without results. Cultures unaccepting of failure may also be reluctant to try new approaches. Many organizations operate in siloes, and while analytics projects happen in corners of the company, there is no overarching data and analytics vision.

RESOURCES

Building a data and analytics practice in-house requires infrastructure, tools, and analysts. Even large companies may struggle to get funding and IT support. Additionally, well-staffed analytics teams find themselves bogged down with recurring reporting, with no time to deliver actionable insight. Those needing to hire analysts find it hard to attract and retain the right talent.

DATA QUALITY

Even though companies have access to large amounts of data, they may find themselves lacking the right data. Data gaps in the customer journey, data siloed throughout the organization, and doubts about data accuracy are common issues.

GETTING STARTED

Given these barriers, starting the data and analytics journey may seem overwhelming. Keep a crawl, walk, run approach in mind:

• Align your analytics goals with business objectives rather than analytical methodologies.
• Aggregate the data you have—most companies have sufficient data to get at least some insights.
• Develop a plan to source/create any data needed to fill gaps.
• Automate recurring reporting to free up analyst time.
• Start with a few specific analytics projects aligned with your business objectives.
• Share your successes throughout the organization. Gain executive support from showing value in these early projects, while making the case for an overarching analytics strategy and vision.
• Continue to learn about your customers. Develop hypotheses and test them. Iterate.
• Marketing is a great place to start! It’s relatively easy to incorporate testing into media plans and to correct course when things don’t work as hypothesized.
• Scale your analytics efforts across the organization.

PARTNERING WITH KH NAVIGATOR

Don’t let common roadblocks prevent you from reaching your goals. We created KH Navigator to help organizations take their analytics to the next level. KH Navigator offers clients a custom program to align analytics with business objectives, go from hindsight to foresight, and rise above the competition. Our phased approach addresses current and future needs to scale analytics across your organization.

You can start the process of leveraging data and analytics right now. Give us a call, schedule a meeting, and start gathering insights today.