Digital tools have been crucial enablers of time-bound transformation.
Data analytics answers the ‘what’ and ‘why’ of strategy and execution. It allows businesses (and humankind at large) to answer questions that couldn’t be answered before, at a speed and scale that was unimaginable before. The accepted wisdom today is that data unlocks strategic value. By letting data rot until it is past its ‘usable date’, you can never acquire timely insights to take the best possible strategic business decisions.
While most companies have acknowledged that we are now in the digital age, many sectors don't reflect this reality.
Creative disruption by technology has helped organisations reinvent processes, enhance quality and deliver consistency.
To put in more simpler words, in a modern economy digital maturity is a 'must-have' and not a 'nice-to-have'.
Businesses that have no digital plan will, at some point, realise that the established ways of working may no longer deliver the results they seek.
The biggest hurdle that comes when shifting to a digital strategy is the problem of changing and adapting from the already existing environment.
Businesses that are adaptable have the highest likelihood of success. They don’t succumb to creative disruption, but leverage it to exceed their efficiency and performance.
Transition gracefully to a world of artificial intelligence (AI), robotics and big data analytics, businesses needs a clear understanding of what needs to be done and how best to do it.
Apart from the risk of failure, it can also be painful to the leaders and employees to transform without a digital strategy.
Without a proper frame work, you won't be able to rally people around positive change.
Here are a few steps to develop the best data strategy:
* A people strategy must necessarily be integrated into the data strategy for it to work as intended.
The best data strategy is one that creates massive economic value while simultaneously serving people and communities in the ecosystem. This is possible by adopting a data-centric mindset, so your first task will be to take a people-centric view as it is the collective efforts of people that drive the organisation.
* By setting measurement criteria, you are also committing to changing the strategy when data reveals this is needed.
To make informed, evidence-backed changes, consider measurements across a number of critical dimensions of your business, such as organisational units, geographies, product and service lines, and your application and technology landscapes.
* Start taking data strategy every bit as seriously as the business strategy.
Consensus on data strategies evolve in the boardroom; key decisions on data must be taken by board members.
Remember that companies that manage their data through superior data strategies are at least five to ten times more valuable than their peers or competitors.
Courtesy: www.analyticsmag.com
