As the impacts of external forces persist (see the Research Insight “Expect Continuing But Waning Impacts Due to the Challenges Posed by External Forces”), organizations increasingly must be Hyper-Decisive®—the apex of innovation and perspective—by instantaneously processing vast arrays of data and information and delivering actionable insights to a growing community of knowledge workers. People in these digital enterprises then leverage these data and insights to make optimal business decisions that mitigate current changes and disruptions caused by external forces, as well as help inform strategic decisions about how to best position the organization to succeed as business conditions change and new opportunities arise (see the Research Insight “Leverage HDMM to Improve Risk Planning and Make More Data-Driven Decisions”).
Data leaders should use the Dresner Advisory Services Hyper-Decisive Maturity Model® first to benchmark and then regularly assess their organizations’ Hyper-Decisive maturity. The model also should inform the plan on how to evolve the organization’s Hyper-Decisive maturity levels. Although we recommend that organizations strive to balance progress across all Hyper-Decisive capabilities, we also realize that right now the external force causing the greatest ongoing negative impact is economic uncertainty and that, in many organizations, it likely may impact decisions related to improving Hyper-Decisive capabilities.
Since organizations commonly seek to offset negative economic macroeconomic factors through tighter cost controls—often implemented through budget freezes or reductions—data leaders looking for an advantage may want to prioritize investments and spending aimed at improving Hyper-Decisive maturity levels that also provide an ancillary benefit—specifically, positively correlating with increasing BI budgets.
Our latest research indicates that high levels of Hyper-Decisive maturity in the areas of data literacy; transparency and accountability; and value, entrepreneurship, and monetization correlate positively with increasing BI budgets. As such, with all else being equal, these three capabilities could represent areas on which data leaders may want to focus—especially in organizations that find themselves regularly challenged by flat or decreasing BI budgets, or, more commonly, expect negative impacts to BI budgets due to near-term economic uncertainty. The research also indicates which additional Hyper-Decisive capabilities correlate less with increasing BI budgets, and could represent areas in which to de-emphasize or reallocate spending in the near term.
Of course, there are caveats. Once again, we recommend that organizations strive to balance progress in increasing their maturity across all Hyper-Decisive capabilities. The inter-relationships (and sometimes inter-dependencies) that exist across Hyper-Decisive capabilities means that extreme emphasis on increasing maturity in one capability to its highest level could easily create challenges in other capabilities, and actually hamper an organization’s ability to achieve success and deliver value through BI.
In addition, the data indicate correlation, not causation. For example, investing in improving data literacy certainly does not mean a data leader should expect to see a corresponding BI budget increase for the same amount. Also, since most investments aimed at improving Hyper-Decisive maturity require time not only to implement but then to start delivering business results and positive ROI, impact will not be immediate. Furthermore, the use and implementation of the Hyper-Decisive Maturity Model is unique to each organization, which needs to establish its own priorities and timetables for improving its Hyper-Decisive maturity levels.
As data leaders seek to make decisions about budgets, planned spending, and improving their organizations’ Hyper-Decisive maturity levels, they should use this research to provide further context and better inform those decisions. After all, using derived insights like these to make optimal business decisions is what being Hyper-Decisive is all about.
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