Wiley & sas business Series

   Expanding the Culture 
 Organizations comfortable with truth seeking and intuitive action are 
usually in equilibrium. They understand the importance of data, even 
if they ’re not especially good at using it. They value insight, even if 
they don ’t always act on it. It may not be optimal, it may not even be 
effi cient, but it ’s sustainable. 
 Faced with a problem, the answer these organizations leap to is 
almost always technology. If they don ’t have the experience and they 
can ’t get any insights from their data, the answer  must  be better tools. 
They end up doing an exhaustive search to select best-of-breed tech-
nology. They conduct exhaustive feature or function comparisons. 
They debate the relative merits of different algorithms, architectures, 
and processing paradigms. Unfortunately, all too often they neglect to 
ask the most important question of all: How am I going to use these 
new capabilities? 
 In the absence of knowing where the value will come from, the 
“build it and they will come” plan is only partly effective. Capability 
without intent is usually just needless structural cost. When it comes 
to their ability to use their information to create value, they ’re com-
petitive if not necessarily innovative. As long as they can demonstrate 
innovation or differentiation elsewhere in the business, this culture 
perpetuates. There ’s a signifi cant opportunity cost, but at least they 
don ’t go out of business. 
 Many organizations never move past this point. They stay in a 
holding pattern, generally frustrated and stressed but still delivering to 
business as usual. Getting past this point involves realizing that busi-
ness analytics is about more than assets or technology. It ’s about value 
creation, change management, and innovation. 
 Many organizations have a dominant culture that refl ects charac-
teristics of both intuitive action and truth seeking. Unfortunately, these 
alone usually inhibit an organization ’s ability to generate signifi cant or 

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B I G   D A T A ,   B I G   I N N O V A T I O N
renewable return from big data and business analytics. Organizations 
that stop with these perspectives usually add cost to their business 
without any clearly measurable benefi ts. 
 Developing culture beyond this point rarely happens organically. 
Usually, it only happens when one of three things occurs. The fi rst 
is total erosion of competitive differentiation. Whether it ’s through 
competitive catch-up or internal failure, the organization might see 
its core source of differentiation disappear. An organization known for 
customer satisfaction might fi nd its market growth under threat if one 
of its competitors achieves equivalent levels of satisfaction. This search 
for a new source of differentiation can act as a trigger to approach busi-
ness analytics and data-driven innovation differently. 
 The second is the introduction of one or more senior change 
agents. Whether it ’s through a board or executive leadership change, 
“new blood” may bring with them an understanding of the value of 
business analytics. Given the right senior support, this can act as a trig-
ger to embark on cultural change. 
 The third is aspirational exposure. Many organizations look not 
only toward their competitors for inspiration but also outside of their 
industry sector. Whether it ’s through study tours, joint leadership plan-
ning sessions, or simply a conversation over the golf course, the exist-
ing leadership team may be exposed to an approach they ’d like their 
organization to aspire to. This desire for improvement can then act as 
a trigger to push the boundaries of the organization ’s existing culture. 
 In the absence of these, there ’s no sense of urgency or reason to 
change. And without a reason, the status quo remains just that.