With the rise of 'Big Data' companies seem willing to trade off their know-how and gut feelings in a rush to accumulate and store increasing amounts of raw data.
However, the smart operators will realise it's how you leverage your information that provides the important insight to bring the value.
Building in a robust analytics environment that is not afraid to question data, and having the belief to trust in such 'outdated concepts' as experience and instinct will provide a smarter environment to make decisions and help you win through in the long run.
Given the avalanche of information that has become available to businesses over the past several years, data-driven decision-making (DDDM), the practice of basing business decisions on data analysis rather than intuition, has become a critical tool to help organizations reduce risk, avoid costly mistakes and take advantage of opportunities. DDDM can now be used for a variety of purposes, from determining how much to charge for a product to whether a customer should be extended a line of credit to how often an industrial machine needs to be serviced in order to avoid unplanned downtime.