Business-altering change can happen in an instance and catch organizations and their leaders unaware and unprepared to respond. In truth, response or contingency plans should be the bare minimum in every organization. These are reactive. Innovative leaders are proactive, acting before change disrupts their organizations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
These leaders stay abreast of the constant streams of information flowing into their organizations and apply data analysis to optimize business performance today and identify opportunities for the future. Their strategy for success is a data-driven strategy\u2014and it is as much about developing and leading the strategy as it is about the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe most effective approach\u2026starts not with the data, but with identifying a business opportunity and determining how the model can improve performance,\u201d write Dominic Barton and David Court for McKinsey<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n How can you lead your organization, teams and employees with a data-driven strategy? Here are four steps to guide you:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Heraclitus of Ephesus<\/a> famously expressed the concept of Panta Rhei\u2014<\/em>that \u201ceverythingchanges,\u201d or \u201clife is flux.\u201d Change is a constant, it is predictable and it has affected people through the ages. It is also accelerating. The continuous innovation and adaption cycles, which are mainly driven by technology, are becoming shorter and shorter. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The different forces that positively (and negatively) influence your business are the Drivers, and if they force an organization to rethink its strategic direction, they’re called Disruptors. Disruptive change has the greatest potential to either propel an organization forward or destroy it altogether. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Not all change is equal, so you need to recognize the different types of change impacting your organization and industry as a whole. Proactive analysis of your organization and the market can help you get ahead of disruptive change and determine which drivers and disruptors are most deserving of your attention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Strategic analysis to conduct can include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Conducting these various analyses will provide you with valuable insights to develop the needed techniques and strategies to leverage change for your organization and enable transformation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The combination of accelerating change and potential disruption has led many organizations to adopt a proactive approach in which predictive analytics have become central to the planning, performance and competitive advantage<\/a> of the organization. This is why making sense of all the internal and external information available and applying it to your strategy formulation is critical. The findings from your various analyses can provide baselines of information and point you in the direction for the types of data to gather.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Many organizations look to data analytics managers<\/a>, data scientists and analysts to process, gather, clean and visualize this raw data, converting the information into insights for organizational leaders. This includes looking at historical data analysis of past performance and why it happened, but also using it to predict future performance and continuously refine strategies to optimize and stay ahead of change drivers, disruptors and the competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The types of data these experts work with to gain these insights can vary by organization\u2014from analyzing e-commerce data to gain deeper knowledge on customer experience and purchasing patterns to trends data harvested using keyword searches in blog posts and social media to using algorithms to track industry and market trends that can then forecast External Drivers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Data-driven insights can be applied and leveraged throughout every facet of your organization, including:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Conducting analysis\u2014both of your organization to recognize drivers and disruptors and of your data information to apply and leverage it to your advantage\u2014informs your strategy development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Every business is different, and your strategic model will be unique to your organization, with best practices in mind. The most effective organizations are strategically aligned through three layers: strategy, goals and objectives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Aligning your organization from top to bottom across departments can be achieved by:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Change drivers and disruptors may be the sparks of action, but it\u2019s leadership that initiates strategy formulation and guides the organization through transformation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The rate of change is only getting faster, but it can be harnessed as a tool for growth and development. Depending on organizational culture and processes, the adoption of a data-driven strategy can be a change in and of itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cUsing big data requires thoughtful organizational change,\u201d write Barton and Court<\/a>. When \u201cnew approaches either don\u2019t align with how companies actually arrive at decisions or fail to provide a clear blueprint for realizing business goals\u2026problems often arise because of a mismatch between an organization\u2019s existing culture and capabilities and emerging tactics to exploit analytics successfully.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n1. Recognize Change Drivers and Prepare for Disruption<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
2. Use Your Analytics to Your Advantage <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
3. Develop a Strategic Model<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
4. Step Up as a Transformational and Visionary Leader<\/h2>\n\n\n\n