Whether it’s to stay ahead of the competition or increase profitability, in today’s world of work, supporting your data-driven decision making is critical to any good business strategy. Read on to discover the benefits of this process and our tips for making smart decisions.
What is data-driven decision making?
Data-driven decision making requires gathering information related to the business’s key performance indicators (KPIs) before making them actionable.
If you haven’t already, now is the time to start using dedicated reporting business intelligence (BI) tools that will make big data collection fast and productive,l allow you to better visualize your data and make your analysis accessible to colleagues whose technical knowledge is not as extensive as your own.
What is it for?
Basing your decisions on reliable data allows you to trust the facts and avoid bias. This type of approach is especially suitable for positions of responsibility, as it is the most effective way to act with impartiality and moderation.
If you want to make informed decisions, you’ll need to rely on real-time data, allowing you to quantify your business goals, with reporting software to collect the data you need, spot patterns, and forecast future trends.
Here are some examples of decisions that benefit from relevant data:
- How can we increase sales and profits?
- How can we establish good management practices?
- How can we optimize operations?
- How can we improve team performance?
Not all of your decisions will be supported by evidence, but most will.
5 good reasons to support your decisions with relevant data.
Planning to lead by example and develop a data-driven corporate culture? If so, then it is imperative that you rely on reliable data during the decision-making process and acquire or strengthen the corresponding skills.
Using data well will allow you to make unbiased decisions for your business while focusing on your goals and possible improvements.
What are the benefits of data-driven decision making?
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Make safe decisions
Companies that outperform the competition have complete confidence in their ability to succeed. When team leaders feel insecure in making decisions, mistakes multiply, staff turnover increases, and risk management suffers.
Trust Accurate Data – you’ll have more confidence in your important decisions, helping you move forward with your team. This kind of confidence also has a positive effect on team morale and performance.
- Avoid bias
Another significant advantage is that having the right data will prevent the management team from giving in to various biases. We are all subject to certain biases, though we may not always be aware of them. A lack of objectivity and certain values that reside naturally in each of us can affect decision-making.
When instead you base your decisions on reliable facts and figures, you can remain objective and unbiased. And reliable facts and figures are crucial when you have to justify your decisions to your colleagues or stakeholders where appr
opriate.
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Identify outstanding questions
Without accurate data, many questions go unanswered. Worse yet, some of these questions will only come to light after analyzing the affected data sets. Accurate data gives you a better view into certain aspects of your business that might otherwise go unseen in the absence of statistics, graphs and other types of diagrams.
By properly identifying these questions, you can make decisions with confidence, knowing that you’ve taken all the relevant information into account.
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Set measurable goals
What could be simpler than relying on accurate data to set measurable goals as a team and achieving those goals? Look at your internal data to analyze your past performance, identify areas for improvement, and make your targets as precise as possible. Here are some examples of what you could achieve:
Increase the number of clients by 20% year on year.- Reduce the total budget for expenses by $20,000 per quarter.
- Reduce the project expenses budget by $500
- Recruit 10 new team members each quarter
Without this data, it will be difficult for your business to analyze the distribution of expenses and identify potential savings. Setting measurable goals will ultimately drive you to factor this data into your decisions, and help you determine how to lower your overall budget or attract more customers.
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Optimize business processes
While it is possible to improve your business processes without relying on data, the improvements you choose to make will be much more effective after analyzing quantitative trends in team performance and company using charts rather than mere observation.
- Some examples of improvements based on accurate data are:
- Risk management, based on financial data
- Cost estimate, based on market price data
- Welcoming new team members, based on data related to the performance of new recruits.
- Customer service, based on customer feedback data.
In business, uncertainty about possible outcomes makes any process change difficult. However, when you focus on reliable information, your decisions will be less of a headache.
This is why at Jump Data-Driven Video, an enterprise data management platform, specifically designed for video service players, we believe in the importance of VOD Analytics, OTT analytics and OTT Insights to give our clients a global vision based on data, so they can make accurate decisions that allow them to increase their sales.
