Part 1/2: Five Action Tips to Slay the Data Monster in 2023

July 3, 2023 | by Todd Hanlin

Note: This is the first of a two-part Competitive Business Solutions blog to successfully help you manage data. 

In a world where information is captured, analyzed and distributed at the speed of light, data can be your best friend—or your worst enemy. In the first of our two-part data-focused series, “Five Action Tips to Slay the Data Monster in 2023,” the CBS team looks at how you and your organization can leverage data to develop better business insight, maintain greater productivity and achieve significantly higher profits.

A new year traditionally signals a time to embrace resolutions. Lose weight. Budget. Exercise. Buy a better vehicle. Better manage your plethora of business data. Changes that require action to see improvement. 

One of the most important lessons I learned about implementing action solutions originated from a colleague. It was simple but impactful. Before leaving a meeting, we always ask this one question — “What is the action?” Why? Like the resolutions we make, if there is no action, there is no change. No improvement. Static ideas wither and die on the vine with no resolve to break out of the status quo and forge results. 

Our consultants are frequently involved with problem-solving and leadership coaching. One of our first questions is always, “Do you have data?” Usually there is no shortage of information gathered. From labor transactions, turn time and delivery statistics to quality, nonconformance and inventory levels, there is typically a LOT of time — and MONEY— invested in capturing data.  

But, far more concerning than those who say “no” are clients who answer “yes” and have collected and archived a mountain of never-used data, unstructured and unorganized.  

An article in Inc. Magazine reports between 60% and 73% of all data within an enterprise goes unused for analytics.  

Imagine doing the research to buy a vehicle and then buying it. You take the new ride home, park it in the garage and close the door. Never moved or driven. What a waste, right? 

Like a powerful vehicle slowly rusting away in a garage, data not analyzed to drive positive impact or guide direction is a missed opportunity. It is not taking you anywhere. Which can mean loss of productivity and profit. 

Most companies are not intentionally failing to utilize the power of their facts and figures. Diving into a deluge of details can be beyond daunting. We get it. Competitive Business Solutions is here to quickly help you better understand and leverage your data to be your advocate and not an adversary. So, read on. Below are some action-packed, usable tips and strategies on how to successfully mine your information, minimize nonvalue efforts and resolve to slay the data monster in 2023. 

1. Automation improves time spent gathering information
   Management software tools such as Material Requirements Planning (MRP) and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and other software systems allow efficient user input. Barcode scanning, voice recognition methodology and data input filters that auto-recognize keywords and pre-populate fields can facilitate data input and quicken the process. Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems, programmable logic controllers, or PLCs, and other process management tools often have outputs that will directly populate data tables for easy access. Use them.
2. Minimize time
   Business intelligence software has revolutionized the historical pivot table analysis by linking data tables, connecting to data lakes and do behind-the-scenes calculations in milliseconds, resulting in easy-to-navigate dashboards to provide rapid filtering and drill down capability. Complex issues become easily understood and help provide high-level visibility to meet challenges. Use them, too.
3. Utilize information to ask for help
   Stay in the weeds, and you rarely step up to the 30,000-foot level to see where time is wasted in redundant loops of activity. Getting an outside set of “fresh eyes” can offer a different perspective, experience and quick recognition of activities that are robbing a team of its productivity. Utilizing the right dataset can build a framework, ensuring you can always find time to review the big picture. Smart managers ask for help.
4. Use the Data to Facilitate Your ‘No’
   Say no – guilt free. Using data and analytics to offer a clear picture of the most impactful issues to the organization, the team can have an efficient discussion about setting priorities. With goals clearly in view, it becomes much easier to say: “I am happy to work that action, but it will keep me from a previously established priority.  How should I proceed?” We cannot fix everything immediately, so we must use our “no” effectively. As billionaire and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, Warren Buffett is credited with saying “. . . very successful people say no to almost everything.” No is often the correct answer.
5. Continually ask, ‘What is the action?’
   If data is collected but results in no action, what is accomplished? Why collect it in the first place? Ask the WHAT questions. On what should we be working? In what order should we attack? Don’t forget: Data not only tells us on what to work; it also tells us on what we should not waste our efforts. WHAT to do if your data is overwhelming? Invest your time on the vital few details instead of the trivial many. Take ACTION for success.