The High Cost of Misaligned Business and Analytics Goals

Findings from research on more than 300 companies undergoing data and analytics transformations.

June 19, 2024

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How and where do companies’ investments in new and improved data and analytic capabilities contribute to tangible business benefits like profitability and growth? Should they invest in talent? Technology? Culture? According to new research, the degree of alignment between business goals and analytics capabilities is among the most important factors. While companies that are early in their analytics journey will see value creation even with significant internal misalignment, at higher levels of data maturity aligned companies find that analytics capabilities create significantly more value across growth, financial, and customer KPIs.

Business leaders are feeling acute pressure to ramp up their company’s data and analytics capabilities — and fast — or risk falling behind more data-savvy competitors. If only the path to success were that straightforward! In our previous research, we found that capitalizing on data and analytics requires creating a data culture, obtaining senior leadership commitment, acquiring data and analytics skills and competencies, as well as empowering employees. And each of these dimensions is necessary just to start the analytics journey.

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Preethika Sainam is an Assistant Professor of Global Marketing at Thunderbird School of Global Management, Arizona State University.

Seigyoung Auh is Professor of Global Marketing at Thunderbird School of Global Management, Arizona State University, and Research Faculty at the Center for Services Leadership at the WP Carey School of Business, Arizona State University.

Richard Ettenson is Professor and Keickhefer Fellow in Global Marketing and Brand Strategy, The Thunderbird School of Global Management, Arizona State University.

Bulent Menguc is a Professor of Marketing at the Leeds University Business School in the U.K.