MIT Sloan Management Review conducted a large scale global survey of 4,000 executives, managers and analysts from a wide range of industries. The theme of this 27 question survey was Analytics, with a somewhat broader scope. Nina Kruschwitz, MIT Sloan Management Review’s managing editor and special projects manager, published a few interesting trends in the preview, with the full report due in Fall this year.

1. Access to Data needs Improvement: Only about 4 in 10 respondents have access to the information they want either to a great extent or completely. The majority are less satisfied with their information access — and almost 1/5 either have limited or no access to the data they need to succeed in their jobs
2. Consistency is key: Organizations are concerned that the quality of the data they use in decision making is consistent. It may be more important to have uniformly consistent data quality across the organization, rather than perfect data from one business unit and poor quality data from another
3. Walk the Talk: respondents want leaders to practice what they preach. If the organization’s leaders make fact-based decisions themselves, in service of the organization’s long-term vision, and demonstrate a willingness to share data across silos, will the rest of the organization be more willing to do the same
4. Organizations unsure how to use data: Organizations continue to struggle to understand how to use analytics to improve the business and to find the time to figure it out. Many of the challenges relate to organizational politics such as who owns the data and who has access to it
5. Not easy to integrate data: The top two challenges that organizations have in using analytics effectively are reminiscent of the challenges that companies have always cited for using business information. Integration is never an easy task, and as organizations take on bigger, bolder goals, the complexity can be overwhelming
6. Primary Business Objectives have not changed: While the top three business objectives remain the same this year compared with last, their order has changed. In 2010, innovating to achieve competitive differentiation was number one; this year it’s growing revenue. There also seems to be a new focus on expansion: Penetrating new markets and acquiring new customers are getting more attention than squeezing more out of what you already have (such as workforce performance or operating speed)
7. Technology is not the problem: Respondents believe that organizational or cultural challenges are almost twice as hard to solve as technological issues. That suggests that leaders have their work cut out for them — and underscores the need for leaders to practice what they preach before the organization is able to use analytics most effectively.

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