It’s not about the data you’ve got, it’s what you do with it that matters
Having been entrenched in the world of retail data for decades, you would undoubtedly expect me to say that it plays a vitally important role within the consumer goods industry. For many years, data has been one of the most valued commodities within retail – a valuable reservoir of information from which commercial advantage can be won. I still stand by my belief in this, however the wider truth is that data can actually become irrelevant if it is not used to drive outcomes.
It’s all about focus.
For Consumer goods manufacturers, too much focus is often placed on handling the vast amounts of data they have available to them, and not enough time spent on using it. My observation is, when it comes to data, up to 80% of a business’s time and energy (not to mention budget) is spent on collating, sorting and cleansing it. The result is that very little time is left to actually extract value from it!
It’s important to keep sight of your desired destination.
Consider the simple analytical value chain below: –
In its life-cycle, data is used to gain insights, which in turn produces business intelligence, resulting in specific actions being taken and, ultimately, desired outcomes being achieved. Sadly, many enterprises get so bogged down in the left hand side of this data journey that they seldom make much progress towards the desired outcomes on the right. It’s an age-old frustration. Time after time, the application of resources, effort and investment fails to achieve a proportionate uplift in sales or the attainment of business goals, and it leaves many commercial teams believing that data – and its time-consuming forensic analysis – was never the answer in the first place.
Collaborative Intelligence turns the traditional approach to data on its head.
Rather than focussing on building the perfect data foundation, Collaborative Intelligence recognises the significant value in a data strategy that puts outcomes at the heart of everything you do. Knowing what your end goal is, a Collaborative-Intelligence-led approach can ensure that your data drives meaningful co-ordinated action across your teams. This action will have a strong bias for success as it has resulted from the utilisation of the best intelligence, gained from the most relevant data insights, passed to the people who are in the best position to do something positive with it and at the exact time they need it.
Data, Insights and Intelligence whilst essential, are effectively only the building blocks of a successful retail strategy; actions and outcomes are where the ultimate value lies. A forward-thinking Collaborative-Intelligence-led approach can be deployed at any stage, regardless of the volume or nature of the data which has been collected and, even when in play, it places no restriction on access to new or alternative data sources and technologies. In other words, it can continue to move you to the profitable, problem-solving right hand side of the chain even when the left hand side is evolving and perhaps isn’t as complete or well defined as traditional approaches would have you believe it needs to be.