Very good article about using data to make decisions and communicate results.

having big data—and even people who can manipulate it successfully—is not enough. Companies need general managers who can partner effectively with “quants” to ensure that their work yields better strategic and tactical decisions.

Often times analysts struggle to communicate their findings in a way the organization understands. Finding a common ground makes for a great combination.

We all know how easily “figures lie and liars figure.” Analytics consumers should never pressure their producers with comments like “See if you can find some evidence in the data to support my idea.” Instead, your explicit goal should be to find the truth.

How many times I have heard this in my career? Quite a few times. As data consumers, we can't be afraid of being wrong or showing that a decision we have made lost money. That happens. Always strive for the truth. It is much better to improve results then to take a hit to your ego.

The rest of the article is a great read on how to better receive analytics. Being someone who can take analytics and turn data into money is what separates the men from the boys.

too many organizations don't quite grasp that being "big data-driven" requires more qualified human judgment than cloud-enabled machine learning.

Human judgement also comes with a caveat, the human's have to be knowledgable about the business at hand. So many times consultants come in and use terms like "big data" and "data modeling" with promises of transforming the business. Much more goes into transforming the business with data and that is the knowledge to take the findings and apply those findings into the CRM efforts to make an impact.

What works best is not a C-suite commitment to "bigger data," ambitious algorithms or sophisticated analytics. A commitment to a desired business outcome is the critical success factor.

The desired outcome is so important. Otherwise the result is usually not actionable, just informational.

Executives need to understand that big data is not about subordinating managerial decisions to automated algorithms but deciding what kinds of data should enhance or transform user experiences. Big Data should be neither servant nor master; properly managed, it becomes a new medium for shaping how people and their technologies interact.

Without taking the findings and enhancing decisions made by frontline staff or database marketing experts, the data is not actionable.