Over the past few weeks, I have written about the amazing growth and financial progress of Business Intelligence (BI) companies like Domo, Birst, and Looker and how their rise to prominence and value signifies a shift in how we think about the best way to manage and value an enterprise.
I described this shift as “changing the world of business from one done by gut and hand to one done by statistics and evidence,” and how this next generation of software companies can “finish the job” of the IT revolution and enable a level of predictability and automation to business and investment processes like never before.
There is one big problem, however.
A problem that threatens the ability of these companies to deliver on the promise of their amazing technologies…
…and along with it any meaningful ROI for their customers.
That problem is people.
You see, the vast majority of us are a combination of unable and unexcited to actually use business intelligence tools and technologies on a regular and consistent basis.
Because doing so is hard.
And harder still when one does not have a rigorous quantitative background in things like statistics, cost accounting, behavioral economics, and managerial finance.
As tough, managing by data requires a lot of “pig-headedness”- not getting distracted by the “noise in the numbers” and a deep humility that when the inevitable conflicts between and our gut and the numbers arise to consistently choose the latter.
None of this sounds like much fun. So we avoid it.
However…let’s juxtapose this difficult reality against why so many very smart people and investors are so excited about BI.
Because when Business Intelligence is done right, everyone makes a LOT more money.
A good analogy is eating better and exercising more – we all know it is really good for us but doing it requires education, habits re-training, and consistent, diligent work.
And those most successful at eating great and being in awesome shape usually have coaches – personal trainers, chefs, nutritionists – to help them define goals, put business and action plans together, and provide ongoing measurements, accountability, and course corrections to achieve success.
And enabling Business Intelligence tools and technologies within organizations is no different.
Luckily, a whole generation of companies have arisen to help companies implement and integrate BI into their management practices and work processes, and to train, teach and coach managers how to use and profit from them.
For sure, some day using BI to drive our daily work and business decision making will become, for most of us, as simple and natural as using a word processor or a spreadsheet.
But that day is a long way off.
And between now and then, the best managers looking to get BI working in their organizations quickly and correctly will hire coaches and consultants to help them.
And the values of the firms that do this work right and truly help managers and companies unlock the huge profit potential of Business Intelligence could someday approach that of the companies that build the software empowering it all.
