More than half (59 per cent) of UK business leaders say that a lack of understanding of data is among the biggest barriers to evolving business conversations. This is despite the fact that for 75 per cent of the c-suite, hard data and numbers remain significant factors in driving quality business exchanges, according to a new survey from Tableau, an analytics platform. Quality business conversations, when backed up by data lead to better decision making and in turn more efficient, productive and successful companies. Without these, companies are at risk of stagnation and competitive loss.
The research, which polled 1,098 c-suite executives across Europe, also found while more than half (56 per cent) of UK business leaders believe the ability to understand insights from data is one of the most important skills for driving quality business conversations, only 12 per cent believe that storytelling is important – suggesting that many senior executives are now prioritising hard facts over narratives when making key business decisions. Moreover, a major barrier to effective communications, even when rooted in data, is meetings that go on for too long without any clear actions or solutions – with almost half (51 per cent) of respondents noting it among the top hurdles to quality business conversations.
Additionally, 28 per cent found that too much data was among the biggest barriers, indicating a clear need for businesses to better support their employees with both training on analysis and software that makes analysis simple and intuitive.
“In the past, senior executives used to think number crunching was a back-office job and relied on experience and insider knowledge to make their decisions. Becoming data-driven is now a priority for business leaders, yet only a small proportion of managers use data regularly in decision making. The research found a lack of understanding, difficulty generating insights, and a lack of trust in the data are the top three barriers to data-driven conversations, demonstrating the urgent need to improve data literacy in businesses,” said Professor Ivo Vlaev, of the Behavioural Science Department at University of Warwick.
“Interestingly, almost a third of c-suite respondents believe ‘too much data’ was the greatest barrier, suggesting businesses simply don’t have the digital tools and skills to efficiently utilise big data sets and mine for insights. Managers overloaded with information are trapped in decision paralysis. This is also indicative of the seemingly overwhelming challenge of breaking down data silos across large businesses, with data from different business divisions becoming stranded on disparate digital islands.”
UK respondents polled poorly when discussing the impact of the pandemic on business conversations, with more than a quarter (26 per cent) saying that the pandemic has negatively impacted businesses causing decisions to be made more quickly and without the input of data. Only 29 per cent of executives have increased data usage in meetings during the pandemic, yet those that did are much more positive about the impact Covid has had on their business conversations (61 per cent versus 28 per cent).
Simon Quinton, UKI Country Manager Tableau commented: “Executives know data enables better business conversations and accelerates decision making. So it’s no wonder that boardrooms are concerned that businesses are not emerging from the pandemic with data decision making and data literacy at the core. Employees need support accessing, understanding and interpreting data in all meetings – remote, hybrid or in person – in order to empower them to ask questions, and find insights that matter, so the right decisions are made at the right time.”
Share