Faculty Article
Data as Driver for Decisions- For the Business and for the Managers Saurav Sanyal Associate Professor and Dean, Corporate Relations “Not everything that counts can be counted and not everything that can be counted counts.” Albert Einstein The obsession over data could certainly harm an organization, the statement of W Edward Deming should be seen in the right context and spirit. No one would be allowed or rather should get away with the sweeping statements about what needs to be done in a situation without backing them with facts and data and hence, the data and decisions are critically linked for better outcomes. The quality of decision making is dependent on the quality of inputs. While all of us are aware that GIGO (Garbage in, Garbage Out) could be true in any sphere, the same applies in business as well where better or worse decisions mean the difference between survival and death of a venture, an organization no matter how mature. As usage of data gets increasingly more and more important, the above quote (Deming) on importance of data is an excellent starting point for any corporate meeting or intense academic discussion in 2019 and beyond. Business and industry is also waking up to this new reality. As an example the data oriented culture from India, IT behemoth Infosys continues to drive data oriented thinking. Data today is a reflection of the overarching need than a passing trend. Wave of investments in new technologies made by the pioneers in technology space as well as technology led industries that are in various stages of transformation are now aware that these are necessary investments. India’s IT Industry which has been a beacon of global excellence in the past couple of decades continues to create customer value across industries by advancing the frontiers of future technologies in data, analytics and AI space. From a learner’s perspective as significant volume of work has already materialized in the area of
data, there is already huge information overload for business leaders as well as the aspiring ones. A glimpse of learning implications from a data oriented perspective in organizational context in 2019 (both for academia and Industry) need a rider especially with two landmark events that have forced us to take a completely different view of data as a source of value creation in business. The first event was the implementation of GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) implemented by 25 May 2018 which multinational companies implemented given the significance of global data protection regulation adopted by European Union. The second event is the ramifications on Data Privacy due to Supreme court ruling Upholding the Validity of Aadhaar Scheme (UIDAI) and making it unconstitutional for private companies to seek Aadhaar data from consumers as KYC Authentication. Significantly, I have observed it from close quarters being a part of corporate world in 2018. Though the two events are not connected, it does give the data professional room to understand the far reaching impact on private companies. While experts mine, debate and conclude that data is the new oil, the immediate implications have a lot of insights for business professionals in the next 3-5 years. What are the important learning implications in the managerial domain? Driving the CEO mandate of growth: In a situation where data oriented thinking and technology has made is made crucial impact on strategies, the companies that stay ahead are different from those in the leaders pack couple of decades back. The market capitalization of Top five Organization in the year 2016 (Forbes Ranking by market capitalization) will reveals they are very different from those in 2000. Driving growth means the corporate boardrooms and managers just cannot ignore and keep data at a distance.
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