Data analytics have become increasingly pivotal for any business that wants to grow successfully. This is why many businesses have begun to collect enormous amounts of customer data, hire teams of brilliant data scientists, and give them nothing short of the best data tools and technology. But the simple fact is this: Raw numbers and data will not provide your business with the critical insight it needs without strong intuition. After all, none of these numbers are helpful until you give them meaning. Business intuition is the invaluable benefit of being an experienced expert in your business! It is the result of time, learning, successes, and failures, and it is what makes you and your company so valuable to your customers.
Data analytics’ strong relationship with intuition can be seen simply in the answers sought out by businesses, thought to be hidden in these vast lists of numbers and spreadsheets. It is business expertise and intuition which frame these numbers as potential business solutions. For example, discovering what combinations of marketing events effectively contribute to purchases or who your most valuable customers are stems heavily from your domain intuition. Your analyst’s intuition and expertise are also heavily weighted in importance as they take those numbers and masterfully extract answers for your questions.
Intuition plays a huge role in defining what you want to do for your business strategy and the goals of analytics. You will learn a lot about what historically has worked and has not worked through analytics, so if all factors hold the same, you can continue to build on successful strategies. While predictive analytics may help intuition when it comes to unanticipated factors influencing behavior, it does not necessarily make sense or aligns with business goals. These moments are when intuition plays a crucial role in defining what matters most; whether it be profits, customer lifetime value, or maximizing orders. Regardless, no algorithm will ultimately be able to make that judgment.
Analytics can only reveal information about things that have already occurred. How they have fared, what worked, and what didn’t work in the past with some estimation of how they may occur in the future. All it can do is simply indicate that you ought to make a change to improve future financials without any specific suggestion or strategy. The decision to try something new and what it looks like is based on intuition, not algorithms or databases.
VISIMO provides the perfect balance of intuition and big data to optimize success for your small to midsized business. Our strategic and analytical experience spans across various industries, including consumer goods, retail, manufacturing, and many others. With VISIMO, you will have a streamlined understanding of the mountains of data you have accumulated and effectively work in data findings to enhance your capabilities through increased savings, revenues, and profits. We provide services that incorporate both intuition and big data to culminate in strategic solutions based on actionable data to elevate your business to the next level.
James Julius is a Partner at VISIMO, a Data Analytics and Strategy consulting firm based out of Pittsburgh, PA
