HBR Guide to Data Analytics Basics for Managers (HBR Guide Series)

CHAPTER 3

Do You Need All That Data?

by Ron Ashkenas

Organizations love data: numbers, reports, trend lines, graphs, spreadsheets—the more the better. And, as a result, many organizations have a substantial internal factory that churns out data on a regular basis, as well as external resources on call that produce data for onetime studies and questions. But what’s the evidence (or dare I say “the data”) that all this data leads to better business decisions? Is some amount of data collection unnecessary, and perhaps even damaging by creating complexity and confusion?

Let’s look at a quick case study: For many years the CEO of a premier consumer products company insisted on a monthly business review process that was highly data-intensive. At its ...