The document discusses how companies can improve decision making through better use of existing data resources rather than relying on big data. It argues that companies first need to learn how to effectively analyze and use the data already in their core systems to support operational decisions before pursuing big data. It provides four key practices of companies with strong evidence-based decision making cultures: 1) establishing a single source of performance data, 2) providing real-time feedback to decision makers, 3) regularly updating business rules based on facts, and 4) coaching employees to make data-driven decisions.

1. Analysis of
“You May Not
Need Big Data
After All”
by Jeanne W. Ross,
Cynthia M. Beath and
Anne Quaadgras

2. INSIGHTS
AND
RELEVANCE
TO
MANAGERS

3. The biggest reason that
investments in big data fail to
pay off is that most
companies don’t do a good
job with the information they
already have. They don’t
know how to manage it,
analyze it in ways that
enhance their understanding,
and then make changes in
response to new insights.
Insight 1

4. Relevance1
They first need to learn how
to use the data already
embedded in their core
operating systems, much the
way people must master
arithmetic before they tackle
algebra. Until a company
learns how to use data and
analysis to support its
operating decisions, it will
not be in a position to
benefit from big data.

5. The companies that have a culture of
evidence-based decision making, have all
seen improvements in their business
performance—and they tend to be more
profitable than companies that don’t
have that kind of culture.
Companies with a culture of evidence-
based decision making ensure that all
decision makers have performance data
at their fingertips every day.
Insight 2

6. Four practices followed by companies with
cultural evidence based decision making
1. Establish one undisputed source of
performance data
2. Give decision makers at all levels near-real-time
feedback
3. Consciously articulate their business rules and
regularly update them in response to facts
4. Provide high-quality coaching to employees
who make decisions on a regular basis

7. 1. Universal acceptance of one source of truth
It is okay if the data are initially flawed, because it
takes time for people to learn how to use a single
source
But over time, quality matters, so companies will
want to initiate processes for improving data
capture
Invariably, that means reviewing business processes
and identifying where mistakes enter systems

8. Data Flow
People required to
use data will take an
active interest in
governance processes
designed to clarify
data definitions and
in learning how
information flows
through the
organization

9. 2. Use Scorecards
The best way to teach people how to use data to create
business benefits is to provide them with data about
their own performance.
Regular scorecards clarify individual accountability and
provide consistent feedback so that individuals know
how they are doing
The most important characteristic of the scorecard is
that it focuses on results that individuals can control

10. Allows the group to identify problems before they
show up on the bottom line, and helps individuals
understand how their activities contribute to
business success
The metrics are more nuanced for employees at
higher levels of an organization, where success on
one metric (such as customer satisfaction) may come
at the expense of another (negotiated price)
But individuals with experience using scorecards can
learn to adapt to greater ambiguity
Targeted scorecard

11. 3. Explicitly Manage Your Business Rules
Business rules are the mechanism for specifying
what actions should be taken in a given circumstance.
It can be one among the two kinds.
1. Broad - “Do whatever it takes to make the
customer happy”
2. Granular - “Accept returns from customers only if
they bring a receipt and the receipt shows that
they purchased the item in the past 30 days”

12. But that happens only when relevant individuals
understand the rules and management regularly
adjusts them in response to new information
Analyzing the impact of business rules doesn’t
involve the massive processing or the statistical
modeling associated with big data
Instead, it involves ordinary managers’ close
monitoring of changes in key indicators
Aligning the actions of operational decision
makers with the company’s strategic objectives

13. Automating them—frees people from routine decisions,
allowing them to focus on activities that demand
individual discretion
Automating business rules also permits increasing
granularity, because systems can deal with more details
than people can
It tends to be easier to test the effects of changes in
automated business rules than in rules that are not
automated
Embedding business rules in software

14. 4. Use Coaching to Improve Performance
Need to help them shift from
basing their decisions on
instinct to basing them on
data
identify how each employee
can address gaps between
goals and outcomes and how
the manager can help

15. What should they do?
Improve their business performance simply by
focusing on how operating data can inform day-
to-day decision making.
How should they do?
Work processes must be redefined, data must
be scrubbed, and business rules must be
established to guide people in their work.
Relevance 2

16. Getting all people to use
data more effectively is a
cheap and powerful way
of taking advantage of all
the big—and little—data
you are accumulating

17. By Dheepika C
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