Decision making is the core of management
A company's success or failure often depends on the judgment of a few or even one person. decided to shape the company's strategy, such as what markets to enter, what products to develop. Decisions affect the company's resources.
In a global, ever-changing world today, managers must make tough decisions faster.
Indeed, according to a recent survey by SAS and the http://www.aliyun.com/zixun/aggregation/3783.html > Harvard Business Review, 74% of global presidents "are under pressure to reach their goals faster than ever."
Smart managers turn to data to find clues about customers, operations, and risks.
They are introducing large numbers of "big data"-from traditional databases to fragmented customer service texts, social media, and so on.
These institutions are storing more and more data, and the value of the company's data is getting higher. According to the dynamic CMC study, 1/5 of British large companies calculate the value of the company's data on the balance sheet.
Better decisions
Today's mobile phone companies demonstrate how to use data analysis to drive decisions.
An increasingly popular industry analysis concept is called Customer Association analysis. This helps to judge a customer's influence in the social sphere of his friends.
Customer Association analysis the type of incoming and outgoing calls, time, frequency, timing.
By analyzing the data, mobile phone companies can use graphics to show their customers ' social networks and identify the most influential users.
The use of analysis results can be more targeted to the influential users focus on advertising efforts, as well as the promotion of advertising to the appropriate user hands. The cost of marketing throughout the market is now based on such analysis.
SAS recently surveyed the global business community's recognition of data analysis decisions.
Working with the Harvard Business Review team, we surveyed 700 senior policymakers, the research report titled "Evolution of Decisions: How leading companies are adopting a data culture".
We find that people are becoming more and more recognized in the analysis of data and have gained from it. Almost 3/4 of respondents said they now rely on data analysis for their department's decisions, and 40% of people feel that the results improve the importance and status of their work.
What to do, why, how to do it
Surprisingly, among the many benefits of data analysis, respondents mentioned that doing more is quicker than making decisions.
"Data analysis accelerates the process of making decisions because everyone looks at the same reality. Pilippo Passerini, chief information officer at Procter and Gamble, said, "All decisions are finally implemented: what to do, why, and how to do it." Many organizations spend a lot of time debating ' what to do ' because different people have different data. Once everyone has the same version, the issue can be shifted to ' how '. You can do more and better. ”
Even as people become more and more determined not only by instinct, research still shows several challenges:
-37% of respondents said their managers relied more on intuition than on the results of data analysis.
-44% of people think that the process by which their institutions make major decisions is opaque.
-1/3 of people feel that their company lacks the skills to use good data analysis.
-1/4 of people are not involved in the decision-making process.
Which is more correct, the quantitative analysis and the judgment of managers ' experience?
Shortage of skills
Michael Pierce, customer service Manager at Bosch Security Systems, said: "I will start with data analysis, but I will listen to my intuition slowly." When intuition and analysis violate, I care more about the outcome. ”
Managers think the right decision is to balance data analysis and experience judgment, and not just rely on one.
As the number, type and speed of data increase, companies will increasingly need to be able to integrate the insights of data analysis into the decision-making process. Challenges also grow with opportunities. There is a lack of graduates at the same time mastering mathematics, science and technology.
The shortage of skills has emerged: 52% of managers involved in research say they need to re-examine data analysis. Furthermore, 1/3 of respondents felt unable to synthesize skills.
As the company becomes increasingly competitive globally and technology is changing, the window of decision making is becoming narrower. The business community needs to inject a culture of data-making decisions, with enough talent, technology, and especially data analysis, to hold on to success.
Otherwise, all they have to do is guess.
(Wen/paul Kent translation/huajie)
(Responsible editor: The good of the Legacy)