Newsletter 05/2018 - Statistics in Decision Making, Article 5

2frame Analytics' newsletters are back!

This is the fifth in a series of several articles on Statistics in Decision Making: Why compete using Analytics?

Another of the questions we heard the most when introducing 2frame Analytics for new companies.

For this Newsletter, we again sought inspiration from the book "Competing on Analytics, Updated with a New Introduction: The New Science of Winning," Thomas H. Davenport and Jeanne G. Harris. Why should I compete using Analytics? What does my company gain from this?

The text below is not extensive and represents a brief overview of what 2frame Analytics thinks about Analytics as an area.

Currently, companies in many industries now offer similar products and use comparable technology, so the ultimate point for differentiation between companies lies in the adoption of high-performing business processes.

What was used before to compete is no longer available:

geographic advantages do not matter in a global competition
protectionist legislation has virtually disappeared around the world
proprietary technologies are copied quickly
revolutionary innovation in products or services seems increasingly difficult to achieve

What else is left to compete and do business with maximum efficiency and effectiveness? Making business decisions as intelligent as possible. Simple as that.

And companies that compete using analytics extract up to the "last drop of value" from their business processes and their key decisions.

Analytics is increasingly embedded in their products and services and can support almost every business process.

However, organizations that want to be competitive need to have some attribute in which they are better than any other in their industry - a distinctive capability (usually involving some kind of business process, type of decision, differentiated product offering, etc.).

Does your company focus on identifying profitable and loyal clients better than its competitors and charging those clients the best price for its product or service?
Does your company sell commodities and need to have the lowest possible level of inventory and prevent its client from being unable to find the product on the shelf?
Does your company differentiate its products and services by incorporating some unique data and proprietary algorithms?
Does your company compete in a people-intensive business and is looking to hire, retain and promote the best people in the industry?
...

If so, Analytics is probably the answer for your company to be the best at it.

Good decisions usually unite data and analysis to back them up.

Competitors using analytics select one or more distinctive capabilities to base their strategies on and apply comprehensive data, statistical and quantitative analysis, and fact-based decision-making to support the capabilities they have selected.

Analytics per se is not a strategy, but its use to optimize a distinctive business capability certainly is a strategy.

Whatever capabilities are emphasized in a strategy, analytics can propel them to a higher level.

Read more about the subject of this Newsletter:

1) "Competing on Analytics, Updated, with a New Introduction: The New Science of Winning", Thomas H. Davenport and Jeanne G. Harris, Harvard Business Review Press; Revised edition, 2017.

Originally posted on 10/17/2018

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