Data-driven tips: impact

We've already arrived at the last number of the top 5 data-driven tips for 2023: number 5. This time Data Strategy Leader Louis de Roo will talk about impact. In this blog he tells you more about why it's so important to find out where your data makes the most impact within your company.

Where to start?

If you've decided to start working data-driven, there are quite a few choices to make. Not only have you thought about the goals your organization wants to achieve with data, but just as important is how you're going to make this land within your company. After all, it's not that simple to get the entire organization "onto data" at the same time, so you'll need to implement it in phases. Then the question arises: where do I start?

Many organizations then instinctively choose the department where data and figures are already an everyday reality, and where working with data won't cause any major shock effects: Finance. After all, the finance department is used to figures, to data-driven decisions, to reports and forecasts. Wrong, unfortunately! Indeed, your finance department won't be shocked by your decision to start working data-driven. But the question is whether this fact will contribute to the success of your implementation process.

Impact

We previously wrote about the curse of the head start at finance, but that's not the only reason to think twice if you believe finance is the ideal starting point for your journey toward a more data-driven organization. The main reason to start working with data is, after all: Impact. Where does your data make the difference? And where do you expect to gain the most benefit from working with data?

If your data strategy is well thought out, you'll know how data can help your organization achieve its objectives. There's a good chance that improving financial reporting isn't your primary goal. And that the time savings you'll achieve by improving those reports are relatively limited.

Operational processes

The real impact of data usually lies in your operational processes. And often precisely in those places where working with data is relatively far removed. Not only is there more to gain there by working with data, the visibility of this innovation is also much greater. And through that visibility, it also becomes easier to bring the rest of the organization along in your change process. So choose the department within your organization that stands to gain the most as the front-runner to start your data-driven innovation. And of course, this process is more difficult, but because of the impact of the change, the return is also much greater.

Data strategy

It's therefore essential to carefully choose the "champion" within your company. After all, you only get one chance at a first impression. A well thought-out data strategy helps you identify the benefits of data for your organization. And thereby helps you choose which part is best to start with. Look for the department that suffers the most from a lack of data. Where the benefits to be gained are the greatest. Where you can really improve the process with data.

Precisely by choosing impact with your data, you create a data-driven culture within your organization, so more colleagues will start wondering whether there's something to be gained by doing more with data. And this creates a demand for data, for analysis and insight. And an organization that learns to improve itself based on data. All benefits you miss out on if you choose to let data be and remain a "finance party." They've long known the benefits there. Now for the rest of your organization!

Written by Louis de Roo
Data Strategy Leader
E-mergo