Empowering the Data Driven Business

I just finished reading a colleague’s post of an article essentially claiming, in order to become a data driven business, the organization must successfully create a culture which is data driven. Being an early Saturday morning, and thinking mostly of breakfast, a thought occurred. Can we drive, cajole or otherwise conjure a data driven culture? Or, perhaps might it be that any behavioral shift is “driven” by our culture in a broader sense; perhaps not a culture in microcosm? 

Consider food. The pantry and the fridge are loaded with ingredients (data). The kitchen is jammed with the requisite tools necessary to turn those ingredients into gastronomically delightful dishes (information). Most of the kitchen’s tools are purpose built to provide a specific function. But, the immersion blender knows nothing of the cutlery, the stove or the dishwasher. Heck, even the knife and the cutting board, two inseparable tools, are in fact, separate and distinct. The ability to effectively use the kitchen’s various tools (integration) to tastfully combine ingredients from the pantry and fridge (Master Data) requires some knowledge, skill and a reasonable amount of time spent in trial and error, understanding what makes a recipe provocative (analytics). Most often, though many of us foodies may dabble when time allows (self-service data consumers), it is the professional chefs who are the most effective making a meal out of disorganized ingredients using a pile of stand-alone tools (data analysts). Most folks just want to go to the restaurant and order a meal, no muss, no fuss (analytic consumers).

The question then becomes, how can an organization become data driven by enabling or empowering a culture shift rather than by creating it out of a force of will? Or, how do we facilitate that end? 

Master data, integration & analytics! Now where might one find all that in one kitchen? As I said at the beginning, it was an early morning 😊!