For the first time, with the power of business intelligence dashboards, smaller businesses can harness the power of big data to more efficiently and profitably manage their companies.
Some readers expressed skepticism that this “stuff” actually works.
That it is just more “noise” that causes entrepreneurs to get “lost in the weeds” versus long-term thinking and planning.
There is some truth to this.
Heck, “Big Data” at its worst is probably best personified by Wall Street “quant jocks” who equate positive expected value “bets” with larger, more foundational truths of right and wrong, and of good and bad.
To these concerns, let me offer a few suggestions as to how to best utilize business data to support, but not drive, leadership and managerial decision-making.
The first point is that for the vast majority of small businesses “getting lost” in the data is the least of their concerns.
A far bigger one is simply analyzing anything more than the barest minimum of balance sheet – “i.e. How much money is in the bank?” and profit and loss statement – i.e. “What were our sales last month?” data.
And when broader data, like the number of incoming leads, sales proposals, average call hold time, marketing spend per action, e-mail open and click-through rates, is analyzed…
…so much of it is either incomplete or just flat-out incorrect to make doing so an exercise in futility.
AND the data that is complete and accurate sits in so many places, Excel worksheets on the sales manager’s computer, deep in a little understood (and used) CRM, in the reporting functionality of software as services like Grasshopper, IfByPhone, Constant Contact and Google Analytics to name just a few…
…that a way too high percentage of the time and energy set aside to analyze it is outright wasted in simply accessing the reports from the data sources that house it!
The simple answer to these challenges is to utilize a best-of-breed business intelligence dashboard that:
• Automatically collects and updates all the data in one easy to access place;
• Has alerts built-in to flag incomplete or way-out-out-the ordinary data; and,
• Is arranged and presented in a visual and formatted way that works for the executive reviewing it.
But it goes deeper than this.
You see, leading and managing a business based on proper data collection and analysis is no longer a choice – it is a necessity.
Because all of our best competitors are doing it.
And doing so along with proper and appropriate strategic repositioning as the consistent and correct interpretation of the data allows, affords, and demands.
Or, as David Byrne of the Talking heads once so famously said “This ain’t no party…this ain’t no disco…this ain’t no fooling around. “
You see, when it comes to data-driven decision-making, it has become a matter of going big or staying home.
As in admitting that one is really not that serious about growing and sustaining a business of lasting value – one agile enough to adapt and evolve in the face of technological and marketplace change, and of competitive threat.
Now, I don’t believe this.
No, the best entrepreneurs I know are as serious as they can be about not just surviving but thriving in this massively opportunity-filled world of ours.
Just take it one step, one click, one API integration at a time.
Sooner than you think, your business will be running more responsively, more nimbly than ever.
Then watch the profits follow.
