In my work as senior consultant for businesses seeking to benefit from data, I’ve come across many different hard management problems that impede the progress of change initiatives, and data analytics initiatives.

The first among these has to be just the lack of knowledge of capabilities and possibilities from data, which is alleviated somewhat by the primary function of a consultant – to provide relevant advice. While it sounds simple, the process of providing the right, relevant advice can be complicated, and needs to take in the business context of the organization rather well, and should encapsulate implicit solutions for the key problems as characterized in our study of the client organization. A second hard management problem is feasibility and cost effectiveness. This is where, in addition to the specific set of ideas that are presented as solutions, and what kind of value they can bring to the organization, we’re interested in how the specific client organization’s investment appetite suits the solution in question.

These first and second hard problems I’ve mentioned generally intertwine with a third, more all-encompassing, and more foundational exercise, change management.

My podcast below discusses many of the real issues around change management in organizations, and suggests how data can be a differentiating factor in change programs. In the podcast are what I think are a couple of interesting perspectives on data driven decision making.