Stop doing that annoying noise about analytics and it’s glamorous terms and go to work. Switching to an Analytical culture it’s so hard than just a few companies are achieving it.
Understanding the metrics or information tools is the less important and complicated step for switching to a Data Driven culture. The most complicated one is the political cost, that since to be high for most of the managers.
Since 2006 approximately which began to appear more strongly the “Web Analytics” term (Digital analytical) in the Internet industry. We’ve been talking a lot about it this five years but we’ve been doing not much than measuring the results of digital campaigns.
Everybody agreed with Robert Kaplan’s quote “You can’t manage what you can’t measure”. When anyone mention it, everybody looks like it is something logic or based on the common sense. Then why nobody can achieve something that is obvious that it’s important? So, why infer over another inference having the chance of making decisions based on low risk scenarios?
You may say that everything about Analytics is pretty complex, that has some cryptic terminology and that it is normally useless. Even when I do agree with great part of that, I don’t think that that is what makes a CEO’s or any person from the C level not taking Analytics seriously or even with some priority. Actually if someone from the C level sees the “Gold” in the information will definitely goes in that direction. The biggest problem is the Organization’s cultural change, that requires a long term planification that has to be based on a corporative decision, that will definitely have political costs that nobody is willing to take, even when it worth it, for sure.
Those companies that changed its culture and became “Data Driven” are those that at the end of the day fill power points with Case Studies that make fill the rest like non creative. But is not about “blind creativity”. Is not true that with just a brilliant mind it’s enough. I mean, it would be great if you can just hire a Guru that can tell us that if we do A and then B then we will get C (hopefully C is money), but unfortunately it doesn’t exist such a thing (actually, would you really hire someone that call himself a Guru? :-S). It is important to realize how terrible and unfair can be asking someone a particular result not providing him with information.
I don’t even remember the number of times that the “Creative guy” from a company almost broke down and cried for joy for receiving a report with detailed information that provided structure and order to a particular requirement. “Finally some information!” was heard as he exhaled a puff of oxygen. Apparently not even the creative guys flee from information, at least not most of them.
What it is really hard is thinking about the others. We are all constantly generating relevant information, you can probably break down in laughter if I tell you that one of the most important sources of information is the notebook full of scribbles next to your computer. That notebook hides the truth that someone, five or ten steps from you, is searching while praying. That scribble in your notebook saying “I swap the header image of the guy wearing a suit by the image of a family enjoying in the field” is all what probably needs some guy next door that is trying to understand why the bounce rate dropped down in 15% generating an increase in ad stock and an increase of 5% in sales! But since the information is not available is hard to understand the cause of the mentioned result.
Nobody leaves a boat in the middle of the ocean when it’s navigating perfectly, why taking the risk? You leave a big one like the titanic even to get into an small boat just when the titanic is sinking. The CMO’s report from IBM is very clear in that regards, CMO’s are drowning in data and have no idea how are they going to be able to make decisions with the volumes of data that they are facing this days. So, the boat is sinking, time of taking the risk…is time to take the new boat.