by Angela Guess
Anne Fisher recently wrote in Fortune, “If you’re a decision maker with access to a fire hose of information, but you’re still struggling to turn it into a competitive advantage, know one thing: You’ve got plenty of company. Roughly 80% of large companies report they’ve seen an important strategic decision go haywire in the past three years because it was based on ‘flawed’ data. Almost three-quarters (72%) say that delays in getting information to the right people have torpedoed “at least one” major effort in the same period. There’s more. Just 27% of C-level executives think their company makes ’highly effective’ use of data, while about a third (32%) say access to mountains of information has actually ‘made things worse’.”
Fisher continues, “That’s according to a new study from the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) and its London sister organization, the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants. It’s based on a poll of 300 senior executives in 16 countries. No one doubts that ‘harnessing data can create a genuine competitive advantage,’ notes Arleen Thomas, the AICPA’s senior vice president of management accounting and global markets. ‘Most companies just need to get better at it.’ The research uncovered three main hurdles to turning data into dollars. The first is being in too big a hurry. ‘Figuring out the specific question you need to answer, and then determining whether the right information exists and where it’s located in the organization, can be a slow process,’ says Thomas. ‘Take the time to make sure you’re answering the right question’.”
photo credit: Flickr/ B4bees