Analytics Culture: The Secret to Success

Accenture outlines the issues and identifies three areas that are fundamental to fostering an analytics culture that underpins high performance.

Many companies are dissatisfied with the return on their investment in analytics. According to a recent Accenture survey of 600 executives, eight out of 10 companies have not achieved their goals in analytics. And only one of 12 respondents expressed satisfaction with the return on their investments.¹

¹ Dave Rich, Brian McCarthy, and Jeanne Harris, “Getting Serious About Analytics: Better Insights, Better Outcomes.” Accenture, 2010.

After examining how high performers use analytics, it is clear that quick action is a distinguishing feature of an effective analytics culture. Companies like Harrah’s and Best Buy, for example, do not simply gather and analyze data: They use the resulting insights to make smarter decisions faster.

No technological solution, simply layered on top of existing processes and culture, can achieve these results. Further, pockets of existing analytical talent quickly grow disillusioned and, because they are not integrated into the business as a whole, fail to deliver much strategic value.

A corporate culture that values analytics and a respect for data combined with a pervasive curiosity results in people asking questions such as, “Do we think this is true, or do we know?” This is the key to success—the “secret sauce”—of analytics leaders. Due to the hard work required to build and maintain such an analytics culture, succeeding in this endeavor raises the table stakes in the market. Accenture uses the term “organizational effectiveness” to structure the multifaceted endeavors required to foster an analytics culture.

Three areas are fundamental to fostering an analytics culture that enables high performance:

• Leadership. The single most important step is to promote leaders at every level who have a passion for data analysis. Executives must also honestly assess just how in touch they are with the existing culture before they attempt to transform it.

• Breaking down silos. Silos are a quick killer of an analytics culture. To help organizations achieve their business goals, analytics requires cross-functional collaboration.

• Developing, motivating and retaining analytics talent. Upskilling the workforce in analytic capabilities is quickly becoming essential just to keep pace with the market. Training workers in IT skills has consumed the organization’s training departments in the past; the next 20 years will be about integrating analytics into everyday work.

Accenture is a leader in analytics, with considerable experience in helping clients integrate analytics into the way they do business in order to achieve high performance.