Magazine Winter 2011 Big Idea: Competing With Data & Analytics Research Feature

Big Data, Analytics and the Path From Insights to Value

How the smartest organizations are embedding analytics to transform information into insight and then action. Findings and recommendations from the first annual New Intelligent Enterprise Global Executive study.

Steve LaValle, Eric Lesser, Rebecca Shockley, Michael S. Hopkins and Nina Kruschwitz Reading Time: 23 min 

Topics

Competing With Data & Analytics

How does data inform business processes, offerings, and engagement with customers? This research looks at trends in the use of analytics, the evolution of analytics strategy, optimal team composition, and new opportunities for data-driven innovation.
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Image courtesy of Best Buy.

 
In every industry, in every part of the world, senior leaders wonder whether they are getting full value from the massive amounts of information they already have within their organizations. New technologies are collecting more data than ever before, yet many organizations are still looking for better ways to obtain value from their data and compete in the marketplace. Their questions about how best to achieve value persist.

Are competitors obtaining sharper, more timely insights? Are they able to regain market advantage, neglected while focusing on expenses during the past two years? Are they correctly interpreting new signals from the global economy — and adequately assessing the impact on their customers and partners? Knowing what happened and why it happened are no longer adequate. Organizations need to know what is happening now, what is likely to happen next and what actions should be taken to get the optimal results.

Full Report

This article presents the highlights of our Special Report Analytics: The New Path to Value. The full report includes complete survey questions and answers.

To help organizations understand the opportunity of information and advanced analytics, MIT Sloan Management Review partnered with the IBM Institute for Business Value to conduct a survey of nearly 3,000 executives, managers and analysts working across more than 30 industries and 100 countries. (See “About the Research.”)

Among our key findings: Top-performing organizations use analytics five times more than lower performers. (See “Analytics Trumps Intuition.”) Overall, our survey found a widespread belief that analytics offers value. Half of our respondents said that improvement of information and analytics was a top priority in their organizations. And more than one in five said they were under intense or significant pressure to adopt advanced information and analytics approaches.

About the Research »

Topics

Competing With Data & Analytics

How does data inform business processes, offerings, and engagement with customers? This research looks at trends in the use of analytics, the evolution of analytics strategy, optimal team composition, and new opportunities for data-driven innovation.
More in this series

About the Authors

Steve LaValle is the global strategy leader for IBM’s Business Analytics and Optimization service line. Eric Lesser is the research director and North American leader of the IBM Institute for Business Value. Rebecca Shockley is the business analytics and optimization global lead for the IBM Institute for Business Value. Michael S. Hopkins is editor-in-chief of MIT Sloan Management Review. Nina Kruschwitz is an editor and the special projects manager at MIT Sloan Management Review.

Acknowledgments

Essential contributions to the research and this article were made by Fred Balboni, GBS global leader: Business Analytics and Optimization, IBM; Michael Haydock, GBS global leader: Customer Analytics, IBM; Deborah Kasdan, writer: Corporate Communications, IBM; Christine Kinser, global leader: Strategic Communications, IBM; and Katharyn White, vice president of marketing, IBM Global Services.

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Comments (9)
Rachel Fojtik
This article was writtten 10 years ago, very great insight from a looking backwards position, in my opinion it is still just as relevant today and unfortunately very little headway has been made in making this possible.  Yes technology exists, machine learning and AI are becoming well embedded, the availability of tools to perform all the predictive pieces mentioned above are available. But people need to learn to utilise these tools to advantage, create easier to read visuals, promote the tools in the business, learn how to use them, gain a greater data literacy, people change is where it's at.
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[…] MIT and IBM (2011) conducted a study on 3000 executives, managers and analysts across 30 different industries and 100 countries to identify the relationship between the company’s performance and its Analytics ability. They found that Analytics-leading organizations are three times more successful than Analytics-starter organizations. Top performing organizations prefer to use analytics five times more than lower performers. It is clear that the adoption of advanced analytic approaches guide organization’s future strategies and help them to make smarter decisions. […]
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[…] to turn data into action sets top performers apart in business, according to a recent MIT Sloan report. Every business, however, is at a different point along the road to incorporating data and […]
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rajeshkan
Thanks for the report. I have some basic questions. May be I am missing something. The basic tenet seems to be how top performers were much better at analytics compared to the ones who are not. This is based on an extensive survey. But, the respondent who chooses whether the company is a top performer also rates them on various criteria on analytics. Will that really give good results? There might be corelation - won't a person who thinks their company "substantially outperforms their peers" (criteria for top performer) have a tendency to rank his company highly as well in their analytic capability? If there is a bias towards the company you work for, won't that reflect in all questions? Has something been done to remove those biases?

Am not an expert on statistics, but I can see that there would be some correlation, but am not sure if I see any causation. Alternate point are welcome.
Siswanto Gatot
I think analitycal tools is a booster for every decision we make. It equips us with definite reasons to make a better decision
Loretta Mahon Smith
Bravo!
The data resources owned by organizations in the information age combines with human resources to provide the fuel for business success.

Readers of this article will find some value in a few resources to help them wind their way through the 'data maze".  This article provides a wonderful overview of the problems and opportunities.  DAMA International www.dama.org is the professional association that supports for both Business and Technical data management professionals, creating a vendor neutral community that shares best practices and approaches.  Enterprise Data World conferences http://edw2011.wilshireconferences.com/ are wonderful opportunities to connect, learn and grow.
Viktor O. Ledenyov, Ukraine
Prof. Michael Porter wrote an article in the HBR and proposed a completely misleading idea that the firms have to execute the so-callled shared value strategy, which includes the economic value and social value, in order to be effective in conditions of new capitalism. However, in my opinion, the firms have to execute the gloval capital and labour sourcing strategies to continue to be competitive and increase
their profits in conditions of modern capitalism. This is a concrete example of wrong ideas and analytics by Prof. Michael Porter, Harvard University, which may lead to the escalation of the economic and finanacial crisis in the USA in 2011.
Viktor O. Ledenyov, Ukraine