In the past, Strategic Business environmental changes triggered organizations to delve into the sphere of what was known as knowledge management. Today digitization of business has changed the strategic analysis content, context, and process. Previously, data science and analysis were not areas many organizations would think twice about. A decade ago, many organizations would just be content with traditional strategic decision making only. Today, that has changed. As strategy making becomes progressively contingent on analytics, connecting data science, analytics and decision making become indispensable. Due to the colossal amount of data being spewed daily by this change, organizations operating in this era of information explosion have no other alternative, other than to adapt to strategy analytics. So what is Strategy analytics? How do analytics fit into strategic management? Who are the practitioners in an organization? At what level of operations do organizations need to adapt to the use of strategy analytics? Is it a necessary evil for organizations, whether struggling or raring to advance to the next frontier? What is the eventual outcome of the use of strategy analytics? Which organizations have already embraced this? Have they been successful?
Metaphorically speaking, Strategy Analytics is the contemporary Trojan horse for organizations. Handling and dealing with big data for strategic reasons is the “in” thing today for many businesses. Strategy Analytics for business is the study of statistical and operational data culminating into the crafting of sustainable strategic alternatives and predictive models, implementation of optimization techniques and organizational capability, dissemination of information for decision making for the right and appropriate stakeholder of the organization, be it customers, business partners, or the greater organizational value system. In a dynamic business environment, strategy analytics aids an organization formulate defensible and distinctive strategies to excel in a complex technologically driven market.
In order to overcome the curse of paralysis by analysis, several organizations have realized the need for big data, even though in varying levels. It is no longer a hidden truth, organizations today need to develop data analytical capabilities. Though the outcomes of strategy analytics maybe bought, internal analytics capability is essential. This comprehension by internal users of strategy data analytics is necessary as the organization seeks to optimize its operative decision making.
Each day makes the world smarter, every day gives fresh challenges to the C-suite and operational executives, this smartness, strategic and operational challenges seem to converge at the need for data, big data. Data has become the core to an organization’s sustainable competitive advantage. Data translation gives an organization the capability to interact with a dynamically competitive environment in the right manner. For an organization to optimize its operations, to satisfy stakeholders, and to out maneuver rivals, it will highly be depended on how well it leverages the use of data, employ data analytics and implement new technologies.