In the world of enterprise analytics, momentum is everything, like in sports, where a well-timed rally can turn the tide of a game, building and maintaining analytics momentum can transform an organization's data-driven decision-making capabilities.
Let's explore how enterprises can create and sustain this momentum, drawing parallels from two of America's favorite pastimes: baseball and football (sorry, not soccer)!
We recently saw this wave of momentum when the University of Tennessee won its first baseball national championship. A clutch swing by outfielder Dylan Dreiling helped Tennessee erase a four-run deficit and win a crucial game 1 versus Florida State. This momentum helped carry them into the championship finals, setting the tone for a historic tournament. More of that below.
The Opening Pitch: Getting Started with Analytics
Every analytics journey begins with a single step, much like a baseball game starts with the first pitch. In baseball, a strong opening can set the tone for the entire game. Similarly, initial projects and wins are crucial for building momentum in enterprise analytics.
Here are a few strategies for a strong start:
Choose high-impact, low-hanging fruit projects.
Secure executive sponsorship with influential people.
Communicate early wins widely.
Example: Imagine a retail company implementing a fundamental customer segmentation analysis. This project yields quick insights into purchasing patterns, allowing for more targeted marketing campaigns. The resulting boost in sales provides the perfect opening pitch to showcase the value of analytics to stakeholders.
Building the Analytics Playbook
A well-designed playbook is essential for success in football. It provides a framework for the team to execute complex strategies efficiently. Similarly, enterprises must develop an analytics playbook to standardize processes, tools, and methodologies.
Elements of a robust analytics playbook:
Data governance policies.
Technology stack recommendations.
Best practices for data visualization and storytelling.
Project prioritization framework.
Example: As your team becomes more familiar with the playbook, they'll execute analytics projects more efficiently, building momentum through increased speed and quality of insights.
Building a Championship Team: Leveraging Cross-Functional Teams
In baseball, I have seen teams with superior talent - but play the game selfishly and get beat by teams with less talent. The teams with less talent worked together better, believed in each other, and didn't worry about individual results, only if the team won. This situation often leads to increased scoring opportunities, better communication, better approaches, and more positive plays that help to determine the final score. In the enterprise analytics world, cross-functional teams can create a similar advantage.
Benefits of cross-functional analytics teams:
Diverse perspectives lead to more innovative solutions.
Broader skill sets enable tackling complex problems.
Improved communication and knowledge sharing across departments.
Example: A manufacturing company forms a cross-functional team with members from operations, finance, data science, and IT to optimize its supply chain. The team's diverse expertise allows them to identify previously overlooked inefficiencies, resulting in significant cost savings and improved delivery times.
The Analytics Bullpen: Building Depth and Specialization
In baseball, a strong bullpen of specialized pitchers is crucial for maintaining momentum throughout the game. Similarly, enterprises need to develop a deep bench of analytics talent with various specializations.
Critical areas for analytics specialization:
Data engineering.
Machine learning and AI.
Data visualization and storytelling.
Domain and industry-specific expertise.
Example: Cultivating diverse analytics skills will better equip organizations to handle challenges and maintain momentum across various projects and initiatives.
The Two-Minute Drill: Rapid Analytics Iterations
The two-minute drill is a fast-paced offensive strategy used in football when time is running out. Teams practice rapid communication and certain plays to advance the football quickly down the field, often toward the sidelines, to stop the clock. The enterprise analytics equivalency to the two-minute drill is rapid prototyping and iterative development.
Benefits of rapid analytics iterations:
Faster time-to-insight, stakeholders get help faster.
Increased stakeholder engagement. I can't stress this one enough: When you work hand-in-hand with your stakeholders, magic can occur. Stakeholders often ask for what they think you can deliver, not what they need.
Ability to pivot quickly based on feedback
Example: A financial services company adopts an agile approach to developing a customer churn prediction model. By releasing a minimum viable product (MVP) early and iterating based on user feedback, they create a highly accurate and user-friendly tool in a fraction of the time it would have taken with a traditional waterfall approach.
The Home Run: Achieving Breakthrough Insights
While consistent base hits are essential, home runs often change the course of a baseball game. In enterprise analytics, breakthrough insights can have a similar impact, dramatically altering the organization's strategy or operations.
As a proud alumnus of the University of Tennessee, I will use the recently completed NCAA Baseball World Series as an example. The college game has been changing. Successful teams focus on hitting home runs with specific strength training and stressing launch angle mechanics and technique.
Some nostalgia from 1999, Braves teammates and eventual hall of famers Greg Maddox and Tom Glavine famously told us, "Chicks Dig the Long Ball" in this iconic Nike baseball ad. If you were born after 1999, please refrain from replying to this blog that we are old!
Out of the eight teams that made the NCAA baseball College World Series, six teams were in the top 14 in home runs:
1 - Tennesseee (184)
4 - Florida (136)
5 - Texas A&M (136)
6- Florida State (131)
11 - Virginia (116)
14 - North Carolina (115)
It's no surprise that Tennessee won the World Series, especially with an NCAA record five players hitting 20 or more home runs!
For my fellow statheads reading this, LSU holds the record for home runs, with 188 in 1997. I bet this record falls within the next few years.
Organizations can have their home run breakthrough by implementing these strategies for insights:
Encourage creative thinking and hypothesis generation.
Invest in advanced analytics techniques (e.g., AI, machine learning).
Combine diverse data sources and incorporate brand-new data sources for novel perspectives.
Example: An insurance company applies machine learning algorithms to combine traditional policy data and newer IoT sensor data from smart homes. This analysis reveals previously unknown risk factors, allowing the company to create innovative, personalized insurance products that disrupt the market.
The Championship Mindset: Fostering a Data-Driven Culture
Ultimately, sustained success in sports comes from cultivating a championship mindset throughout the organization. The same is true for enterprise analytics. Building a data-driven culture is essential for long-term analytics momentum.
Strategies for fostering a data-driven culture:
Lead by example: Ensure leadership uses data in decision-making.
Celebrate analytics wins and learn from failures.
Invest in ongoing training and skill development.
Incorporate data literacy into hiring and performance evaluations.
Example: A healthcare provider implements a "data-driven decision-making" award, recognizing teams that effectively use analytics to improve patient outcomes or operational efficiency. This initiative encourages employees to engage with data and analytics daily.
Conclusion: Keeping the Momentum Going
Building analytics momentum within an enterprise is a continuous process, much like the relentless pursuit of improvement in sports. By focusing on quick wins, developing a strong analytics playbook, leveraging cross-functional teams, and fostering a data-driven culture, organizations can create and sustain the momentum needed to thrive in today's data-rich business environment.
Remember, just as in sports, there will be setbacks and challenges, and one must learn how to deal with failure. A baseball player is successful if they fail seven out of ten times (that is a .300 batting average for non-baseball fans).
The key is learning from these experiences, adjusting your strategy, and pushing forward. With persistence and the right approach, your organization can build unstoppable analytics momentum, leading to improved decision-making, increased efficiency, and a sustainable competitive advantage.
So, are you ready to take the field and lead your organization to analytics victory?
Inspirational people for this newsletter:
(Articles, blogs, posts, conversations, tweets, or situations that I have been in that helped to shape an idea for this newsletter's topic):
Tony Vitello and the 2024 University of Tennessee baseball team, Barry Chaiken Papa Diaw Chase Zieman Alberto Jiménez Bruno Aziza Phil Walton Ronnie Michael Smith April Huckaby, RT(R) (ARRT) Bernard Marr Ray Sharp , James Luby Randy Boyd Phil Santoni Ved Chirayath Ronwyn Pritchett Edward Williams Michael Langenberg, CPA, FRBMA Donde Plowman Bob Basaraba
Also posted on ChangeWave: Riding the Analytics Tide to Business Evolution - a LinkedIn newsletter:
DALL-E prompts:
Title image:
A funny cartoon depicting a baseball player hitting a baseball while wearing full football equipment, including shoulder pads and football padded pants.
Conclusion image:
Create the same hitter, but celebrate in the dugout with all of his teammates that he just won the ball game. Add "DATA" as their jersey name.
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