Business analytics and decision making – The human dimension

The range of data available to business continues to expand. There is already a lot of data captured by diverse process owners across the business. Developments in Big Data and Data Analytics provide opportunities to access and assess further sources of data which may have potential to better inform decision-making and performance management.

This CGMA report outlines how best practice in decision making is shifting towards an insight-driven process based on the rational interpretation and understanding of data. It sets out the kind of questions that can be addressed by analytics initiatives and looks at how working with data both to gain insight and to support decision making is a challenging process.

Following an analysis of the difficulty of analytics and the crucial role of storytelling and visualisation in communicating the results of any analysis, the report describes the personal skills and competencies that management accountants must possess to be recognised as credible leaders co-creating insight. The report concludes with guidance for those seeking to drive decision making with insight rather than intuition.