What is the most valuable piece or most important steps to being a data-driven organization? Being clean/accurate? agile? easily interpreted? actionable?
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Buy in and understanding from senior management.
A Data-driven organization starts from the top down. One of the most important steps is the culture. An organization will not be successful if the senior leadership is not onboard with it and the culture isn't such that it supports the concept.
Excellent point. In Good to Great, one key differentiator between good and great companies was data. Leadership in great companies believed the data and navigated the company using the information as a guide.
Very, very true and a great book. I've read it a few times along with How The Mighty Fall. Leadership has to recognize that data is their friend and how to utilize it in a way that supports their top priorities.
The old acronym GIGO (Garbage-In/Garbage Out) should be top of mind. It is important to make the data capture as automated and part of the day-to-day operational processes. Data is generally inaccurate in an organization when it is an after thought, add-on to the process, and the quality is it managed by by operational management.
It should also be incubated and matured in organisation culture. Often we miss that attribute.
The most valuable would be a truly holistic overview, this does not mean API's and BI, but a truly top layer that can assist with alerts such as: low stock for a competitor in EU and you can ship XXX units or Natural Disaster in XXX will mean shortage of this raw material resulting in $$$ loss and a mitigation option. This transparency helps everything from procurement to shareholders. The important steps are developing the culture to make it less of a "supply chain" with each link in the chain as it's own entity to an ecosystem with contributions that work in harmony. (Example sourcing the cheapest raw material, but it not longer meets free trade agreement eligibility so the final product is now more expensive).