Seventy percent of the companies that were listed on the Fortune 1000 just 10 years ago have disappeared.
The reason?
They’re victims of change – casualties of the digital disruption as well as their inabilities to anticipate and mitigate risk, says Forrester VP and Principal Analyst Craig Le Clair. But the fact is, these threats could impact any company in any industry. The antidote to these disruptions is business agility, according to Le Clair.
There are different types of business agility that companies can achieve through the use of analytics. One is market agility – the use of analytics to sense and respond to even subtle changes in market dynamics.
For instance, using analytics, construction company leaders can pick up on a shift among consumers to lean toward apartment and housing rentals versus buying properties outright.
Organizational leaders can use these and other insights, including consumer sentiment surrounding housing preferences (e.g., townhouses versus apartments) to formulate project strategies that hit the sweet spot on consumer preferences.
Another type is operational agility – having the flexibility to quickly identify and make changes to both internal and external processes.
Product leaders and contact center managers for a consumer electronics manufacturer can use analytics to anticipate and plan for a rise in customer call volumes for support following the launch of a new consumer electronics device.
A third type of business agility where analytics can play a decisive role is cultural agility – better understanding the culture of your company and employees and quickly identifying and acting on shifts in employee engagement.
A sudden decrease in employee productivity may signal an underlying problem that is affecting a wide range of employees. Predictive analytics can be used to uncover the root cause of employee discontent, allowing HR and business leaders to act quickly and decisively before the problem becomes more widespread.
Two things are vitally important to driving effective Agile BI, says Le Clair – awareness and execution: “You have to sense and understand what’s going on and you have to be able to act upon it quickly.”
By operationalizing and automating advanced analytics, organizations make strides along the path to Analytics Maturity.
Next Steps:
- Download the 2014 Forrester Wave for Agile BI to learn why Spotfire ranked highest in “Current Offering.”
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