Make decisions in response to new insights

BetterDecisions

The biggest reason that investments in big data fail to pay off, though, is that most companies don’t do a good job with the information they already have. They don’t know how to manage it, analyze it in ways that enhance their understanding, and then make changes in response to new insights. Companies don’t magically develop those competencies just because they’ve invested in high-end analytics tools. They first need to learn how to use the data already embedded in their core operating systems, much the way people must master arithmetic before they tackle algebra. Until a company learns how to use data and analysis to support its operating decisions, it will not be in a position to benefit from big data.

via You May Not Need Big Data After All – Harvard Business Review.

If you want to know more on this topics, have a look at one of my new projects: www.betterdecisionsforum.com, register and keep in touch.

PierG

p.s. we are on FB, Twitter and LinkedIn too.

Control brings its own insidious danger

When we don’t give our people the space to take calculated risks, learn, apply, and iterate, we are really risking our future.  While there is a risk to improvising and spontaneity, control brings its own insidious dangers. In our push for perfection, we over-engineer. We add so many bells and whistles that it takes a Ph.D. to use the product. Just because we can doesn’t mean we should.  Just because we can practice to perfection doesn’t mean that’s best.

via Control Is for Beginners – Deborah Mills-Scofield – Harvard Business Review.

PierG

Use your Social Capital to foster innovation

Serial innovators tend to use their connections and networks to mobilize resources and build strong alliances, both internally and externally. Popular accounts of entrepreneurship tend to glorify innovators as independent spirits and individualistic geniuses, but innovation is always the product of teams. In line, entrepreneurial people tend to have higher EQ, which enables them to sell their ideas and strategy to others, and communicate the core mission to the team.

via The Five Characteristics of Successful Innovators – Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic – Harvard Business Review.

Innovation is all about generating new ideas .. or not?

[…] few assumptions about innovation that underlie […] contest

1. The main problem the firm has with innovation is that they don’t have enough ideas.
2. The reason that people aren’t innovating is that they aren’t being paid enough to do so.
3. Idea generation is the best place to invest money to improve innovation.

All three of these assumptions are false, and that is why this initiative isn’t going to work.  This is the most common innovation mistake that I see: acting like innovation is all about generating new ideas.

via Why Your Innovation Contest Won’t Work – Tim Kastelle – Harvard Business Review.

PierG

Design Thinking cheat sheet

So, the long and the short of it is, you too can become a designer. I suggest you try it using these three steps:

#1 – Pick one among the challenges you face daily. It can be as simple as refining the best way to commute to work, or as complex as designing your own methods to put your baby to sleep with minimum crying and maximum speed. Just pick one.

#2 – Develop an awareness for the process you follow to tackle that challenge. In particular, notice some of the changes you’ve made recently to improve your outcomes. Be mindful about what works and what doesn’t, and how you iterate your solutions to make continuous improvements.

#3 – Now comes the hardest part. Say this to yourself: I am a designer.

via d.school: the whiteboard | A design thinker’s cheat sheet.

PierG

The innovator mindset

Think 10x!

You must think to make things 10x better, faster, smaller, … don’t just set the goal to be ‘a little better’. Think beyond the next solution!

That’s what make the difference in company like Google for example.

PierG

Most (IT) managers don’t know what business they are in

• Who are your customers?
• What do they ask you for?
• What do you do to the requests?
• And where do they go when you are finished with them?

via What business are you in? | DJA.

PierG

The internet of useful things

What’s driving the internet of things?

via GigaOM Mobilize 2013 on Livestream.

PierG

The new age of computing

We have entered a new age of embedded, intuitive computing in which our homes, cars, stores, farms, and factories have the ability to think, sense, understand, and respond to our needs. It’s not science fiction, but the dawn of a new era.

via The Third Wave of Computing | Blog | design mind.

Scary? Powerful?

PierG

The (agile) devil is in the details

It’s been said that agile BI is simple but not easy. That is, the concept of working in short iterations, delivering your BI system in small increments, and evolving the solution based on feedback is easy enough for most people to understand. However, as with many things, the devil is in the details.

via Ten Mistakes in Agile BI Adoption.

Sure it is in the details and as far as I see, agile BI is not that easy 🙂

PierG