The Value of Business Analytics: Identifying the Path to Profitability

SUMMARY

Committing to delivering the value in the form of an execution plan is essential. As we have seen:

• An innovation approach typically offers competitive advantage at a higher risk and time investment.
• An evolutionary approach typically offers incremental improvements at lower risk and time investment.
• The value created is independent of whether the approach is innovative or evolutionary.
• Operational activities tend to maintain existing value.
• Growth activities tend to add to existing value.
• In order to maintain the value returned, growth business analytics activities typically transition into operational.

Delivering sustained value through business analytics requires delivering regular incremental value at the same time as committing to a road map. It requires a strong focus on planning, execution, and measurement to deliver real returns and justify ongoing investment. And, delivering the above often requires creating tactical revolutions, leveraging the time freed through small evolutionary improvements to deliver growth initiatives.

For most teams, this involves the following five steps:

1. Deliver evolutionary activities within the business-as-usual space to free up a beachhead of time.

2. This time is then invested in evolutionary growth projects, typically leveraging existing competencies to deliver new sources of value.

3. Once measured, the value delivered through this growth project is used to justify additional resourcing.

4. This additional resourcing is then applied ...