Data Is Our Friend – How to Establish a Data Culture in Your Company [5 Reading Tips]

Data-Driven Culture — Source: Unsplash/Franki Chamaki

Data is the new oil. It means progress and holds huge potential. You just have to recognise it and derive appropriate measures. Understanding data and identifying opportunities guarantees long-term success.

Accordingly, it is up to every company not only to manage the enormous amount of data collected and generated on a daily basis, but above all to create an understanding of data – throughout the entire company and also among external stakeholders. Data-driven culture makes it possible.

Collecting Data ≠ Understanding Data

Around 50 per cent of all companies have invested in big data in the past. More than 70 per cent plan to invest in it in the future. It is obvious that companies currently need to be data-driven in order to remain competitive and flexible. Most importantly, decision-making processes must be influenced by data and not by gut feelings, vague predictions or opinions.

However, data can also deter people. It can intimidate them. It might even scare some people. This is why it is important to demystify the flood of data. Data is not green ones and zeros flowing down on a black background. Data is our friend – and it is only when companies perceive data as a friend that it finds its way not only into our computers, but also into our heads.

Making Data Accessible

Of course, it is important to have a vision before integrating big data into your company. Appropriately trained executives such as CTOs (chief technical officers) or CIOs (chief information officers) can help colleagues understand such data-driven visions.

They should also make the collected and analysed data accessible to all teams. Transparency is the keyword. It does not hurt to briefly present a figure at the end of meetings that everyone can make sense of, for example the monthly website visits or the number of shopping cart abandonments yesterday morning. Step by step, this establishes an understanding of data and can motivate employees to make contributions.

Using Data Actively

In a data-driven culture, all employees of a company should ideally be able to actively use data to improve their daily work and realise the company’s full potential. Putting data at the centre of decision-making would be the best solution – from the data owner, the data scientist and the business analyst to the member of another team. Ultimately, all teams can benefit from data and create intelligent solutions for process optimisation.