Corporate culture is often the keystone that makes the difference, both internally with employees and in terms of performance.
Data culture, which is part of the company’s culture, is the set of behaviours, beliefs and habits that are transmitted in the operations, mentalities and attitudes of a company.
The thing with data culture is that the use, trust, understanding and transparency of data is embedded in the habits and customs of employees.
In this article, we develop 3 reasons why a data culture is so important for a company, and essential to be truly data-driven.
- Establishing a data culture: the time is now!
- Reason 1: refocus on the business need
- Reason 2: democratise data
- Reason 3: make sense of technology investments
- How to do it?
Establishing a data culture: the time is now!
We have more and more tools at our disposal, and investments in new applications have not decreased in recent years. Even if you don’t always have to know how to code to use these technologies, discussions around data have often been reserved for certain profiles within the company. But today, we realise that there are countless missed opportunities by excluding part of the people. As with everything, the real drivers of a business are the people in it, and data is no exception.
It is by engaging the whole company, by facilitating access to data, in all transparency, that a company can truly be data-driven. By including data in the company’s customs and habits, we gain trust, save time and multiply our chances of discovering new insights.
Reason 1: refocus on the business need
It cannot be repeated often enough: the business need is the one and only reason to invest in data.
It is not uncommon for data projects to drag on, to get tangled up in the volumes of data available, or to change direction altogether in the course of the project. However, one should never lose sight of the business need. Bringing together the technical skills, the tools, the people most concerned with the business challenges is in this sense essential to stay relevant. By collaborating with the right people, data analysis is more relevant, and the return on investment is faster.
A data culture improves decision-making by giving everyone in the company the insights they need to be truly data-driven.
Reason 2: democratise data
Data is information. And who in the company would not benefit from information?
Data science, machine learning, predictive modelling undoubtedly bring extraordinary value to the enterprise. But in the end, it is all about communicating information effectively and translating it into concrete action. It is therefore necessary to consider opening the data discussion to different profiles in order to bring tangible and actionable value to the company. This will probably increase the number of questions, but these questions will be related to each other’s fields, making the company’s data even more relevant.
A data analyst with his head in his dashboards will not find the same insights as a team leader who looks at the same dashboards from a different perspective. Not only are we more likely to get insights, but we are also more likely to spot mistakes.
Reason 3: make sense of technology investments
Translating business needs into technical requirements, functional analysis, making the bride between technical and business,These are all professions with rare skills that add a lot of value to a company. Adopting a data culture means integrating best practices of those jobs into the company. This does not mean completely replacing these profiles, but it does mean facilitating the integration of these skills to reduce costs and get a better return on investment.
Imagine also multiplying the effect of your data enthusiasts. One person picks up a tool or skill, tells two or three people about it, who then tell another two or three people about it, and so on, until the use of the tool is obvious to everyone.
A strong data culture will solidify the links between the technical, functional and business profiles, and make the investments around data more concrete.
How to do it?
There are obvious things to do to foster a data culture, such as establishing processes that include the use of data or dashboards, full transparency in access to data, redistributing responsibility across domains and not just to a small team.
To know how to concretely implement a data culture, we invite you to consult our dedicated programmes: