Never before have business leaders had so little time to make decisions. Between consumers expecting real-time updates on every purchase or service they pay for, to the competitors looking to beat them to every customer, slow and careful deliberation simply isn’t a luxury that many can afford.
Unfortunately, leaders are also judged — even defined — by the ability to make the right call under pressure. Napoleon Bonaparte once said that "nothing is more difficult, and therefore more precious, than to be able to decide."
But if you don’t have the time to think, how can you make good decisions? Without the full context to ground your judgement, or the time to process them, what are the alternatives?
SVP for EMEA at Confluent.
The risky business of gut-feel
For many, the answer is to go with your gut.
New research — exploring how 200 CEOs, MDs, and C-level executives in the UK approach decision-making — finds that this is true for more than three in five (61%) in the UK. The majority make ‘snap decisions’.
This is because, for many, the pressure to make a fast decision — any decision — overcomes the need to make the right decision. Leaders are choosing to substitute the full picture for a subjective interpretation, based on their experience and opinions alone.
It also indicates a lack of technological maturity within a business. More than half (58%) say they rely on ‘gut feel’ because they’re unable to access insights in real time, while 52% say that data is out of date by the time it reaches them.
In other words, business-critical systems simply can’t provide the data business leaders need in time to factor it into the decision-making process.
In some cases, instinct and experience can be enough. But these qualities are, by definition, retrospective — they can’t accurately factor in new information, or unexpected changes. And in a business environment that evolves faster than ever before, there’s always something new to consider.
Ultimately, gut feel is only part of the picture. The other part is evidence; beliefs should not replace analytics but refer to them for context.
Demand for data-led decisions
Decision-makers make that sentiment clear. While gut feel is prominent, 84% said they’d like to make more decisions based on accurate data, while a similar 85% believe they’d make better decisions if they were able to base them on real-time data.
Business leaders need data and insights available at their fingertips. Rather than compromise and slow down the decision-making process, they need real-time data to inform and complement their gut feel — and they’re often not equipped to access this.
We can see this with 80% of leaders stating that they need to “completely overhaul” their existing data approach. There’s a desire and intent to make things better to meet the demands of fast-paced businesses.
In many organizations, data can’t move through their systems in sufficient time to deliver real-time insights. Batch processing data is a common obstacle here, with many businesses designed to process data in huge, inefficient cuts after it’s already been collected. The siloing of that data — between different apps, departments, and cloud providers — can make things even harder.
Swim with the stream
Consequently, many business leaders are looking to data streaming platforms. Rather than processing data in cumbersome blocks, hours or even days after it’s collected, they’re prioritizing systems that can make data accessible in real time — no matter where in the business it is — to allow analytics to match that pace.
The numbers here are striking. More than three quarters of business leaders (77%) are investing in data streaming to improve on their decision-making processes. And a huge 97% are investing, or have plans to invest in, real-time dashboards to make real-time analytics readily available.
It’s no surprise, with the early adopters who are already walking the walk seeing considerable benefits. According to recent data, 84% of IT leaders who had invested in data streaming were seeing 2x to 10x returns on their investment, with 41% citing an ROI of 5x or more.
Access to real-time data that can ground your business decisions in reality is already changing how businesses operate, for the better.
That’s because data isn’t just an IT problem. Data can speak to the forces that impact every part of the modern business — from financial performance to customer experience. The more accurate and in-the-moment that data is, the more value it can bring.
The same is true of our leaders. For all the value and wisdom in their instincts and experiences, real-time data streaming is becoming a critical part of business leadership. Data-powered decisions will come to define great leaders.
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