5 Obvious Characteristics of a Data Driven Company

Data Driven Company February 26, 2021

Mary Kate Morrow

Writer

5 Characteristics That Showcase a Data Driven Company

Data driven companies are much more likely to retain a competitive advantage and overall business success. In fact, studies show that data driven companies are growing at an average of over 30% annually. As such, more than any time before it is essential for a company to be data driven. Unfortunately, some corporations do not know what it means to become a truly data driven company.

Creating data-driven businesses requires more than business intelligence integration and data scientist hired onto the staff. Thankfully there are common features of a data driven organization for business owners to look out for. 5 obvious characteristics of a data driven organization include-

1. Literacy

Data literacy encompasses the ability to read, manage, interpret, and argue with data. A data driven business will make sure data literacy is a top priority for all employees. Some data driven companies have instituted programs to help promote data literacy in the workplace. Efforts towards making data literacy more commonplace have been shown to increase engagement levels.

Additionally, when employees have data literacy skills they are better equipped to assist with data based customer service inquiries. For example, if a customer is having issues with social media platforms or has a data culture question, a data literacy proficient employee may either be able to answer their inquiry or direct them to the proper representative.

2. Leadership

For efforts towards creating data driven companies, businesses should make sure to put the right leaders in charge. A driven organization executive should be creative, inquisitive, and passionate. The best data management professionals will make decisionsusing data and are not afraid to execute bold moves.

For example, a driven organization executive may choose to invest in infrastructure for data driven processes instead of merely focusing on key performance indicators. The right data driven executive for the role will likely challenge empirical or traditional approaches within an organization. With the right approach, a great data management executive can help to develop a data driven culture for the entire business.

3. Democratization

When employees are not granted access to the right data within an organization the entire business suffers. Unfortunately, even businesses with a data strategy that claims to have a data driven company culture may still fail to give the right data access to their employees. Another outdated data strategy component occurs when employees must request information through an inefficient formal process. A formal process that must collect data requests and individually approve them can be a massive waste of employee time.

Additionally, employees may feel that their company mistrusts them if company data is not accessible. To best encourage data literacy and a business becoming data driven, executives must make sure the right data is supplied to employees as quickly as possible, ideally instantly. Accessibility is crucial for the democratization of data management within businesses. A data driven business must make sure that employees can access data with varying levels of technical expertise.

4. Automation

One main criterion for judging if an organization is data driven is analyzing the automation of data management workloads. Data driven insights are an amazing tool but if they are not properly incorporated into business processes, a company is not truly data driven. The automation of data management workloads supplies many benefits to businesses.

Two significant benefits include more optimized data driven decision making and reconsideration of business strategies. It is crucial to note that manual approaches like business intelligence reports or dashboards may be counterproductive. Manual data management touchpoints can hinder everything from the ability to collect data to company data storage.

5. Culture

When people think of big data and digital transformation they may be overly focused on tools and technology. However, a truly data driven company focuses on building data driven company culture. Company culture influences everything from the effectiveness of a data strategy to data literacy levels. Creating data culture successfully is a team effort that many companies struggle with.

A data driven culture is focused on making data accessible and democratized. In order for a company culture to become data driven it must prioritize both data literacy and the accessibility of data help resources for employees. Using data analytics successfully allows employees to make data driven decisions as well as better understand their own role in a company. For example, if an employee can clearly see how their activities are influencing the overall company they will likely be more motivated in their performance.

Data Driven Company- Conclusion

A data driven company promotes both customer success and overall business bottom line profitability.
A data driven approach generally contains 5 primary characteristics that include literacy, leadership, democratization, automation, and culture.