数据驱动的决策解释。利用数据做出更明智的商业决策

Making smart business decisions is critical to the success of any company – a fact I think we can all agree on. But how do you make strategically important decisions? Most CEOs and top managers make decisions based on their experience and intuition. While this may sometimes work, relying on these two factors alone is not enough — not nearly enough. It’s no wonder that companies that use Data-Driven Decision-Making (DDDM) are 19 times more likely to be profitable than their peers that don’t rely on data to make critical decisions. (Source: McKinsey )

This is where data comes into play. By analyzing data, you can better understand what is going on with your business. To make the best decisions, you must have accurate and timely data. This data can come from a variety of sources, including customer surveys, financial reports, and website analytics. This article discusses how to use data to make smarter business decisions.

Using data to make decisions?

Making a decision is difficult. Knowing what is the right thing to do can be difficult. But what if you could use the information to help you make a decision? That’s data-driven decision making. You use data from different sources to help you make better choices. This may include data from science, business analytics and business intelligence.

Data-driven decision-making has many benefits. First, it helps you make decisions faster. This is because you have all the information you need right in front of you. There’s no need to collect more data, or try to explain it yourself. In the long run, this saves a lot of time.

Another benefit is that it helps you make more accurate decisions. This is because you are not relying on your intuition or intuition. Your decision is based on facts and evidence. This can lead to better results for your business.

What is Data Driven Decision Making (DDDM)?

Data-Driven Decision-making (DDDM) is the process of using data and statistics to inform and guide business decisions. DDDM can include everything from understanding what happened in the past, what is happening now, and what might happen in the future by analyzing the data using machine learning models. Typically, these models are built by using machine learning algorithms on datasets that have been annotated with desired outputs (decisions). This model can then be used to predict outputs for new datasets.

Businesses have always used data in some form to make decisions, but the term “data-driven decision-making” generally refers to the increased use of data analytics and predictive modeling in recent years. Thanks to big data, businesses now have access to more data than ever before, and they are increasingly turning to analytics tools and techniques to make sense of it all.

At the heart of data-driven decision making is the analytics component. This involves collecting, cleaning, analyzing, and seeing patterns in which management can make decisions. The goal is to use this data to understand what is going on with your business and make better decisions.

Analytics can be used for everything from figuring out what products to sell to understanding customer behavior. By analyzing data, businesses can identify trends and determine the actions they need to take to capitalize on those trends. For example, if a business notices that its sales are increasing during a certain time of year, it may decide to increase its marketing efforts during that time.

The benefits of data-driven decision-making are clear. By using analytics, businesses can improve their decision-making process, become more efficient and make more money. To take advantage of these benefits, businesses must effectively collect and use the right data.

Businesses should be aware that data-driven decision-making has several limitations. First, data can be misinterpreted. It is important to remember that data is only part of the picture and cannot be relied upon blindly. Also, if data is not collected or analyzed properly, it can be biased. Finally, businesses may not have all the relevant data available, which can hamper their ability to make informed decisions.

Despite these limitations, data-driven decision-making remains a powerful tool that businesses can use to improve their performance. By being aware of these limitations and taking them into account, businesses can make better decisions and see real results.

What are the benefits of data-driven decision making?

Businesses that use data-driven decision-making can enjoy a significant advantage over their competitors. What makes DDDM so effective is not just the content of the data, but also its effect on managers and decision makers throughout the organization.

Some of the most important benefits are.

Improve efficiency

Making data-driven decisions helps businesses avoid wasting time and resources on ineffective strategies. It also allows businesses to adapt more quickly to changes in the market or environment.

faster decision

Data-driven decision-making can help businesses make decisions faster because they have all the information they need at their fingertips. This is especially useful in fast-paced industries or markets where quick decisions based purely on feel can be hugely costly.

improve accuracy

Data provides a factual basis for decisions, which can improve the accuracy of those decisions. This improves outcomes and therefore trust in decisions. In doing so, companies can speed up the decision-making process and avoid costly mistakes based on bias, psychological pitfalls, or intuition.

better decision

By having more facts, businesses can make better decisions and are more likely to succeed. This will lead to increased profits and competitiveness. The quality of decisions will be significantly better and more reliable.

Improve customer service and experience

Data-driven decision-making can help businesses better understand customer needs and preferences, enabling them to provide higher levels of customer service. In this way, it is possible to personalize offerings, increase customer retention and even increase customer lifetime value (CLV) over time by providing better service, communication and more.

Strengthen strategic planning

Armed with data, businesses can create long-term plans that are more likely to succeed than plans developed without data analysis. Data-driven strategic management and data-driven strategic planning can be important cornerstones for businesses that want to outperform others. But at the same time, what needs to be mentioned here is that managers should be aware of possible data biases or challenges in forecasting, and not be fooled by wrong analysis results.

more flexible

Data-driven decision-making enables businesses to be more agile and quickly adapt to changes in the market or industry. With access to near real-time data, changes in market dynamics can be observed and proactively addressed. This can help companies stay ahead of the market and avoid being reactive.

increase confidence in decision making

With data to support your decisions, you and your team can have increased confidence in your choices. This can help organizations by improving morale and motivation to make faster, bolder decisions. In general, management tends to be more satisfied when making decisions because they can rely on data rather than needing to rely on intuition to justify their decisions.

allocate resources more efficiently

Data can help you understand where your resources are best spent and where your efforts should be focused. This enables you to distribute them more efficiently, increasing profits. At the same time, it avoids the best projects that have little impact on the company.

7 Steps to Getting Started with Data-Driven Decision Making (DDDM)

Overall, data-driven decision-making is not complicated at first. However, managers should be aware of the pitfalls and make sure the organization is ready to support DDDM. In the DDDM process, there are four key steps: data acquisition, data cleaning and preparation, data analysis and decision-making.

1. Set clear goals and objectives

Without a clear goal, it is not easy to know what type of data to collect and how to analyze it. Managers should work with their teams to develop specific goals that DDDM can help achieve.

2. Get the right data

Once goals are set, managers must identify the data needed to support the decision. This includes internal data (such as financial records, website analysis, customer surveys) and external data (such as market trends, social media and market research reports). This data should be accurate and timely; otherwise, it is useless for decision-making.

3. Prepare and clean data

在获得必要的数据后，需要对其进行清理和准备，以便进行分析。这包括数据的格式化、缺失值和离群点检测。这些步骤对于确保数据为进一步分析做好准备是很重要的。

4. 进行数据分析

一旦数据被清理和准备好，就可以对其进行分析以支持决策。这包括探索性数据分析，统计建模和预测性分析。其目的是找到可以帮助管理者做出更好决策的见解。

5. 分享洞察力

分析完数据后，与相关的利益相关者分享见解是很重要的。这些利益相关者包括经理、员工和其他决策者。一个很好的方法是将其纳入利益相关者在日常工作中使用的现有工具中。洞察力应该被清晰和简洁地呈现出来，这样他们可以很容易地理解并用于决策。这也有助于将数据可视化，并创建易于理解的报告，在内部分享。

6. 做出决定

有了正确的数据基础和洞察力，管理者可以做出明智的决定。这包括战略决策（例如，开发什么新产品）和运营决策（例如，如何改善客户服务）。

7. 监测和调整

最后，监测决策的结果并作出相应调整是很重要的。这种反馈循环对于确保决策的有效性和进一步改进是非常重要的。

创建一个数据驱动的公司文化

数据驱动的公司文化对于充分利用数据驱动的决策至关重要。一个没有数据驱动的公司将无法有效地使用数据来做出更好的决策。数据驱动的决策可以帮助公司识别机会和问题，但如果公司文化不支持数据分析，这些见解就会被闲置。

为了取得成功，数据驱动的文化必须具备以下特点。

1. 领导者需要做好准备并被启用

领导者必须得到必要的工具和培训，以便在决策过程中有效地使用数据。没有这些，他们将无法充分利用数据驱动的决策。

但是，领导者也需要为做出基于数据的决策而承担责任。这种问责可以以关键绩效指标（KPI）和其他措施的形式出现，以跟踪数据是否被有效利用。如果领导者没有准备好或不负责任，数据驱动的决策将不会成功。

2. 对员工的培训

All employees need to be trained to use data in decision-making. This training should cover everything from basic data knowledge to more advanced analysis techniques. Without this training, employees will not be able to take full advantage of data-driven decision-making. They may not even realize the opportunities that data can provide.

3. Find and empower internal data champions

Data champions can be hard to find, but they are critical to driving a data-driven culture. These individuals will be responsible for evangelizing the use of data and analytics within the company. Data advocates need to be able to effectively communicate the benefits of data-driven decision-making to others and empower them to use data in the right way.

4. Integrate data everywhere — make it “the norm”

To create a data-driven culture, businesses need to integrate data into every aspect of their operations, from meetings to project proposals to strategic planning. By doing this, everyone in the company will understand the importance of data and how it can help them make better decisions.

5. Infrastructure and processes need to be ready

Data-driven decisions require massive amounts of data, infrastructure and resources. From collection, cleansing, analysis, and integration to day-to-day work, the necessary infrastructure and processes must be in place to support a data-driven culture. If any of these elements are missing, employees get frustrated and revert to “gut decision making.”

in conclusion

Making decisions based on solid data is necessary for organizations looking to thrive in the future. With so much change and upheaval in today’s business environment, making data-driven decisions is more important than ever. Having a data-driven culture ensures that all members of your organization can think critically and make informed decisions. Implementing these practices is not easy, but careful planning and execution can help your business remain relevant and successful in the future.

Now is a great time to start with data-driven strategic decisions, build your first model, start small and get your feet on the ground. There is huge potential for many businesses, and they can use some data and some insight to better invest in important projects that create the greatest impact for the organization.

By Benjamin TallinnBenjamin Tallinn , CEO, MoreThanDigital

MoreThanDigital Insights

MoreThanDigital Insights is a global leading platform for business analytics. We provide the data-driven insights needed to make better strategic decisions, cut through the noise, and future-proof organizations. Our neutral and independent platform analyzes, and benchmarks every aspect of a company, from financial data to several maturity areas. Insights from up to 300 different business dimensions give holistic insights into the organization. This information is essential for a data-driven strategy. It allows companies to invest in projects and topics that will impact their success. With MoreThanDigital Insights, you can be confident that you're making decisions based on facts and data, not guesswork. Our platform is constantly updated with the latest data and insights, so you can be sure that you're always ahead of the curve. Make MoreThanDigital Insights your go-to source for business analytics. Stay ahead of the competition, set the right strategy, make decisions based on data, measure your success and see your progress.