Analytics at Work: Smarter Decisions, Better Results

Most companies are awash in data yet make 40 percent of major decisions on gut instinct, leaving money and competitive advantage on the table. In this sequel to Competing on Analytics, Davenport, Harris, and Morison move beyond the rare analytical competitors to the broad base of organizations that simply want to become more analytical—one decision at a time. The book organizes the prerequisites for analytical success under the memorable DELTA framework (accessible high-quality Data, an Enterprise orientation, analytical Leadership, strategic Targets, and Analysts), pairs it with a five-stage maturity model, and then explains how to sustain analytical capability by embedding analytics in business processes, building an analytical culture, and continually reviewing models and assumptions. Illustrated with examples from Best Buy, Progressive, Humana, 1-800-Flowers, Capital One, and many others, it offers frameworks, assessment tools, and pragmatic advice—a compass rather than a rigid map—for managers who want to unleash the value buried in their data.

What it argues

Analytics at Work: Smarter Decisions, Better Results

Key ideas it contributes

• Accessible High-Quality Data — The degree to which an organization has clean, integrated, accessible, well-governed, and where possible unique/proprietary data structured and managed for analytical (not just transactional) use.
• Enterprise Orientation — The extent to which data, technology, analysts, and analytical decisions are coordinated holistically across organizational silos rather than fragmented into local, self-serving fiefdoms.
• Analytical Leadership — The presence of leaders at any level who passionately manage by fact, push for data and analysis, set example and performance expectations, hire smart analysts, and build an analytical ecosystem.
• Strategic Analytical Targets — The degree to which analytical efforts are focused on high-value, high-impact business processes and distinctive capabilities that drive performance and differentiation rather than scattered low-value projects.
• Analyst Talent Capability — The supply, mix, skills, engagement, organization, and deployment of analytical talent (champions, professionals, semiprofessionals, amateurs) building and applying models across the enterprise.
• Embedded Analytics in Business Processes — The degree to which analytical models and decisions are integrated into core operational processes and workflow so that insights are routinely and automatically acted upon.
• Analytical Culture — A shared set of attitudes and behaviors—searching for truth, seeking data not just stories, valuing negative results, pushbacks for unsupported claims, and acting on analysis—that makes fact-based decisions the norm.
• Continuous Review and Model Management — The systematic practice of reviewing and renewing strategy, targets, competitors, customers, technology, and analytical models/assumptions to keep them valid as conditions change.
• Fact-Based Decision Making — The use of objective data and rigorous analysis as the primary guides to decisions across strategic, tactical, and operational levels, with intuition employed only where appropriate.
• Analytical Maturity Stage — The organization's position on the five-stage continuum from Analytically Impaired to Analytical Competitor, reflecting how developed and balanced its DELTA capabilities are.
• Business Performance and Results — The downstream outcomes—better/faster/more consistent decisions, improved efficiency, risk management, profitability, growth, and competitive differentiation—achieved by putting analytics to work.