There’s one thing that every business, regardless of sector, industry or model has in common: a need to stay ahead of the competition.
Even if you work regularly with other businesses or serve them in a B2B model, if you’re unable to gain a competitive edge, to stay just a slight bit ahead of others who do provide similar services or manufacture similar products, you’re likely to be swallowed up by those who are able to gain it.
Staying ahead of the competition is critical for long-term growth, for profitable operations and for customer retention. Where does it start? If you’ve been looking for a competitive edge, you may have overlooked a simple solution.
It Starts with Better Decision Making
Look at the leaders in your industry…what do they have in common? Are you unsure? Think for a moment of how many times you’ve watched something unfold, or a trend take root, and thought “wow…why didn’t I think of that?” Or, “how didn’t I see that coming?”
It happens to the best of us. But, certain businesses seem to be more adept at staying ahead of trends than others. Some just seem to make better decisions on a more regular basis.
It seems to be at the root of the companies, businesses and organizations that stay ahead of the competition. They make better decisions on a more regular basis, allowing them to stay ahead of the curve, and to grow as leaders in their respective industries.
What Makes Better Decision Making Possible?
It’s logical that those businesses who can make better decisions end up doing better in the long run, that they become trend setters, instead of trying to keep up with the trends after they’ve already been established.
But, what makes it possible? Do those that make better business decisions have more luck? Are they more willing to take a gamble that their guesses will pay off going forward? While it might feel this way sometimes, it’s highly unlikely. Instead, it’s all about the data. To be clear: good data minimizes the risks traditionally inherent with making decisions.
To understand, it’s best to start with the basics. Noshir Kaka and Michael Chui with Live Mint sum it up well in their piece, “The Big Impact from Big Data,” when they explain that a single piece of information might seem utterly insignificant, almost useless. When, however, those single pieces of information are lined up appropriately with other pieces of information, they can be illuminating. They can pull together billions of puzzle pieces to make a clear, coherent picture, a road map of how to proceed.
Data is powerful, as such, it has almost always been collected in one form or another. However, the process has generally also been time consuming, meaning that by the time the important information reaches the key decision makers, time has passed and the decisions that need to be made still contain a certain amount of guess work. There always still been a decent amount of risk involved.
Until recently, until insights – made possible through powerful algorithms like those utilized by Zerion’s software – became live.
We mention this a lot because it’s becoming more and more important, more and more powerful for key decision makers. Think of what it means to you, to your business. If you could see data points as they’re being collected, or as the events they are based upon are taking place, and if that data was instantly analyzed for trends and other important pieces of information, what would you do with it? Better yet, what would you be able to do with it?
- Predict trends based on recent information rather than information from the past?
- Prevent a recall or other catastrophic event from taking place that could harm your business, its customers or others you serve?
- Reach those most in need of your tools and/or services without having to wait until a situation becomes urgent?
- Produce the newest version of a product that meets real needs, instead of those that are based on estimations or guesses?
You’re probably able to name many, many ways you’d be able to enhance your processes, your products or your operations based on live information pulled from customized data points. Most importantly, you’d be able to gain that competitive edge you’ve been contemplating.
Sound like something that might be worth your time, might be worth some consideration? We think so too. Check out our one-minute demos to view available features, then contact us to learn about how our mobile data collection app, or other data management solution could change the way you do business.