I remember how my dad would always be reminding me to pay attention – like when I’d miss a tennis ball in practice or misspell the capitol of Honduras – and to be honest, I should have paid more attention to his advice at the time. Paying attention can mean the difference between success and failure in most endeavors. If Woody Allen’s famous line, “80% of life is just showing up” is true, then paying attention accounts for at least 10% of the rest.
Business Intelligence and Analytics is on my mind everyday and a part of every conversation with our clients. As a result, we continue to focus on what the critical role of BI really is, and how it is best employed to enhance business. What a surprise: It’s about paying attention.
I have yet to encounter an organization – large or small – that is completely comfortable with their own ability to understand their customers, measure and attribute success and failure, or reliably predict business outcomes from promotional activities. It’s not for lack of interest or intellect. Some of the smartest and most engaged executives are among those who readily admit to an inability to make sense of all the data their organizations create. They long for clear, actionable information to help them succeed.
As we gain ever more ways to interact with customers, the amount of data we can harvest grows; and the challenge of making sense of all the information multiplies. Twenty years ago, it was hard enough to measure the impact of a mail shot when broadcast and print were the only other drivers. With the explosion of new communication channels – online, email, social, mobile – and the shift from outbound to interactive communication, marketers are busier than ever trying to capitalize on all the possibilities. In the process of all this frenetic activity, we aren’t always able to pay attention to how we measure and act upon results. We are awash in an ocean of data, and John Wannamaker’s famous complaint about not knowing which half of his advertising is wasted is still the risk facing most organizations.
The good news is that we marketers now have good tools to harvest data, and the opportunity to note and pay attention to the things that impact success. This is where Business Intelligence adds value. BI allows us to fail or learn fast; but only if we pay attention. By making BI a central component of each campaign, establishing clear connections between business goals and success metrics, and refusing to execute any activity that cannot be measured, we can reduce waste and improve our ability to adjust and improve performance.
Organizations need to help in order for BI to be most effective. How?…by paying attention. BI is not just a stack of incomprehensible charts and graphs that grow like sedimentary rock on the marketers’ shelves or sit heavy in unopened emails. Rather, it is a discipline that converts data into knowledge and knowledge into actionable insights and recommendations. Embracing BI as an integral part of an organization’s growth and operations and working with BI resources to understand and refine what is delivered will ensure everyone is paying attention to the right stuff, and limit the distraction of irrelevant data. Like so many things in life, what you get out of it depends on what you put in. Pay attention to how and what you need to measure and the result will be knowledge worth much more than you’ve paid.
