Member Article

The role of Big Data in Big Decisions

In a recent study, PricewaterhouseCoopers examines the factors behind big decision making for this year what role Big Data will play.

Over half of the 1000 international survey respondents were board or C-suite members, participating in feedback regarding the big decisions they have made in the last year, along with the drivers and hindrances in their decision-making processes.

Most indicate that decisions are made on opportunistic terms, in which a situation presented itself and the need to act was immediate. The top three decisions made are categorized by company growth, competitor collaboration and downsizing the business.

The way that the C-suite is making decisions is rapidly changing – in the last two years, the execs say that the number of people involved in decision-making has increased, as well as the usage of both externally and internally stored data. Therefore, they are beginning to employ more specialized analytics and techniques, as well as making use of a data insights team that has been using more enhanced data procedures.

32% of execs surveyed describe their decision-making as “highly data driven”. These respondents also indicated that they also make more decisions in quantity and quality, and are able to revisit them more frequently throughout the year.

The path to data-driven decision making is troublesome, however. Execs from developing nations indicated that lack of data governance was their largest obstacle, where more developed countries found their main issue to be determining which data to use.

Individuals in the board room did not get to where they are today by data crunching, but rather by their business savvy and leadership skills, opening an argument regarding the importance of “gut feelings” versus data-driven decision making. In fact, almost half of the survey respondents argue that the recent case for data-driven decision making is undermining the relevance of intuition and experience.

PwC insists that the best scenario occurs when data and intuition complement eachother.

The group also warns about the inherent biases in data, given the fact that data is biased before analysts even have a chance to look at it. Also, dashboards are man-made, meaning the presentation of data is already skewed in one direction, however unconsciously.

Earlier mentioned, the C-Suite individuals responded that most decisions are opportunistic, which points to the untimeliness of data analysis and reporting. However, at the same time, these participants mentioned that their organization has an efficient pipeline for this type of information.

Respondents were more likely to report that their lack of skills in handling data represented a difficulty in fully incorporating data-driven decision making into the C-Suite agenda. Three quarters indicated that data training should be a pre-requisite for senior management staff.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Casey McCulloh .