Management and executives at all levels must model a data culture
Posted: Sat Jan 25, 2025 10:15 am
One of the biggest current challenges is that the process of becoming a data-driven company involves a profound cultural change. A company is not "data-driven" or "data-minded" by using state-of-the-art tools in the area of data and analytics or by only having a data-first mindset established in management or in the analytics unit within the company. It is important to put data at the center of the organization, processes and responsibilities, and to do so across all organizational levels. All departments should develop a certain mindset and a certain curiosity to find out what knowledge and potential lies in data.
There are four areas that a company should focus on if it wants to become “data-driven” or “data-minded”:
1. Data Leadership
2. Data literacy
3. Data access
4. Data communication
Overview of the individual subject areas
Data Leadership
It is not enough for management to proclaim data as the company's resource and then not follow through with action. In addition to awareness of the importance of data, initiatives must be launched that anchor ghana consumer email list data as a strategic resource in terms of process design, targets, responsibilities and roles in the company. that shows that they use data as a basis for corporate management and decision-making.
data literacy
There is often a belief in companies that dealing with data or using data requires in-depth technical knowledge. In some cases, this may be true. But being able to read and analyze data, work with it, and communicate insights should be a natural skill for every employee in the company. A company should therefore train employees across the board and offer a training concept for data & analytics. It is also essential that tools and technologies are used that can not only be used by technically minded employees, but are also accessible to the general public and enable them to answer data-driven questions. Because in the end, we all agree: a treasure trove of data can only be unearthed with technical and specialist knowledge.
data access
In discussions with customers, we repeatedly hear that data access is seen as a major challenge. And this is not just about technical questions relating to access to data. It is primarily about organizational regulations. In concrete terms, this means: who is allowed to view the data and how can the data be used? There are also two approaches here: need to know versus right to know. The classic need to know approach only gives employees access to data that they explicitly need for their (everyday) activities. On the other hand, the right to know approach tries to focus on data democratization. Here, all data (except, of course, data that is particularly worthy of protection) should be made accessible to employees. In this way, creative and innovative employees should have the opportunity to use data potential as input factors for "tinkering and dreaming".
data communication
Communication is a critical success factor in a transformation in order to strengthen acceptance among employees and to include them as an important part of this journey. There are various ways to prepare the topic of data for the general public. One point could be to talk about success stories regarding data-driven use cases. What added value do these use cases have for the department or for the company? What lessons could be learned? Are there best practices that can be derived for further and new use cases and projects? On the other hand, failed use cases should also be discussed in order to allay fears and excessive expectations. Another idea would be to establish the role of data champions in the company. Data champions are central contacts from IT or from the departments who have strong skills in the area of data. They provide interested employees with assistance (for example with regard to training, use case ideation, tools or technologies), allay fears and help to advance the topic of data in the organization and create a data culture.
Conclusion
These four topic blocks should be seen as a start to establishing a data-driven mindset in the company. There is no checklist or anything similar that is worked through and then the company is data-minded. Because in the end, data mindedness or a data-driven company is not a state, but a conscious decision and the requirement for the organization to develop further every day and not to lose sight of the focus on the data.
You can find out how we can help you prepare data correctly so that the right insights can be drawn from it and the right decisions can be made on our website .
You can find more exciting topics from the adesso world in our previously published blog posts .
There are four areas that a company should focus on if it wants to become “data-driven” or “data-minded”:
1. Data Leadership
2. Data literacy
3. Data access
4. Data communication
Overview of the individual subject areas
Data Leadership
It is not enough for management to proclaim data as the company's resource and then not follow through with action. In addition to awareness of the importance of data, initiatives must be launched that anchor ghana consumer email list data as a strategic resource in terms of process design, targets, responsibilities and roles in the company. that shows that they use data as a basis for corporate management and decision-making.
data literacy
There is often a belief in companies that dealing with data or using data requires in-depth technical knowledge. In some cases, this may be true. But being able to read and analyze data, work with it, and communicate insights should be a natural skill for every employee in the company. A company should therefore train employees across the board and offer a training concept for data & analytics. It is also essential that tools and technologies are used that can not only be used by technically minded employees, but are also accessible to the general public and enable them to answer data-driven questions. Because in the end, we all agree: a treasure trove of data can only be unearthed with technical and specialist knowledge.
data access
In discussions with customers, we repeatedly hear that data access is seen as a major challenge. And this is not just about technical questions relating to access to data. It is primarily about organizational regulations. In concrete terms, this means: who is allowed to view the data and how can the data be used? There are also two approaches here: need to know versus right to know. The classic need to know approach only gives employees access to data that they explicitly need for their (everyday) activities. On the other hand, the right to know approach tries to focus on data democratization. Here, all data (except, of course, data that is particularly worthy of protection) should be made accessible to employees. In this way, creative and innovative employees should have the opportunity to use data potential as input factors for "tinkering and dreaming".
data communication
Communication is a critical success factor in a transformation in order to strengthen acceptance among employees and to include them as an important part of this journey. There are various ways to prepare the topic of data for the general public. One point could be to talk about success stories regarding data-driven use cases. What added value do these use cases have for the department or for the company? What lessons could be learned? Are there best practices that can be derived for further and new use cases and projects? On the other hand, failed use cases should also be discussed in order to allay fears and excessive expectations. Another idea would be to establish the role of data champions in the company. Data champions are central contacts from IT or from the departments who have strong skills in the area of data. They provide interested employees with assistance (for example with regard to training, use case ideation, tools or technologies), allay fears and help to advance the topic of data in the organization and create a data culture.
Conclusion
These four topic blocks should be seen as a start to establishing a data-driven mindset in the company. There is no checklist or anything similar that is worked through and then the company is data-minded. Because in the end, data mindedness or a data-driven company is not a state, but a conscious decision and the requirement for the organization to develop further every day and not to lose sight of the focus on the data.
You can find out how we can help you prepare data correctly so that the right insights can be drawn from it and the right decisions can be made on our website .
You can find more exciting topics from the adesso world in our previously published blog posts .