“You got yer data, and you got yer database…”
– A senior, founding executive of one of the leading data firms in the world
It’s almost never about the data. It’s about the insights.
It does, however, start with data. That was Jim’s point. He typically placed an expletive at the beginning and end of the statement, like punctuation. It was his way of illustrating the point that it’s not rocket surgery, it’s data, analytics and insights.
One of my favorite Dick Heston-isms is: “Figures lie, and liars figure.” That belief though didn’t keep him from carrying a little pocket notebook around and “cipherin'” all the time. When was that heifer bred? When was that soybean crop planted? That new power-take-off attachment? Well, it’s got 150 hours on it, so we better get one to have in the shop, because “that hay ain’t gonna bail itself!”
The data didn’t tell Dad when “ol’ 319” (that was her ear-tag number) was going to have a calf. It did, though, give him an idea of which birth was likely next, which cow might need moved to the barn if it was supposed to rain or snow, whether he needed to check on the cattle twice, or more on a given day.
That little notebook, his cipherin’ and all the data he kept there provided him insights on how to run the farm. In my lifetime, I remember dad losing maybe — maybe — seven or eight calves over the 34 years that I was aware of birth and death rates in his herd.
Data Used To Develop Insight Determines Direction
What’s our win rate? Against competitor A? Competitor C? In vertical market X? In metro areas? Rural? Suburban? How often do we win RFP’s? (That’s a trick question….no one wins if an RFP is part of the process!) How long is our sales cycle? What’s our average revenue per client? All of us could literally keep this paragraph going for hours, days maybe.
Let’s don’t do that.
What are the data that matter most? Do we have, or can we get access to them? Do we have people who can convert them into insights, or at the very least, organize them into concepts, theories and hypotheses?
Unless It’s Just Math, We Still Have To Decide
And it’s danged near never just math. Dad was right. Figures do lie, and liars do figure — it’s their only way to avoid the truth.
Difference makers use data to ask better questions, not just jump to quick answers. Difference makers use data to seek understanding and perspective, not to rubber-stamp pre-conceived notions.
Difference makers decide. Data helps them have the insight to decide sooner, better, and then, data provide them feedback on whether the decision was right, is still right or needs to be re-made.
Dad was the best business mind I’ll ever know. He was a farmer. And a factory worker. He collected the data that mattered, honed it into insights, and then he decided.
We ought to do the same.
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