Using Business Analytics to Become a Goal-Oriented Manager

Want to effectively communicate about your group’s work to others? Want to help your team understand how their work directly supports the company’s goals? Want to successfully manage risks that can hurt your team, and see the opportunities that lie ahead? If you responded yes, business analytics may hold the answers you seek.

Business analytics guides managers to transform data into useful information. This information helps to describe what is going on, diagnose problems, anticipate opportunities and inform action plans. This benefits both you and your organization. Effective business analytics requires knowledge at all levels. This includes strategic planning, goal setting, performance indicators/metrics and data analysis and interpretation. Understanding how to navigate these levels is key for success. Zoom out and then zoom in, for better outcomes.

• Explore where organizational goals come from and how you can shape them.
• Translate broad goals to key performance indicators (KPIs) and measures.
• Practice translating goals and indicators into project-focused action plans.
• Discover the tools that enable business analytics, such as effective data management, data reports, data mining, data visualization, modeling and simulations.
• Learn to identify the data you have and how to address data shortfalls.
• Link business analytics back to goals and performance indicators, and effectively tell your story using all three.
• Learn to continuously evolve and improve data analytics over time and as goals change.

Managers and supervisors who want to understand organizational performance and measurement and demonstrate the impact of their work on the organization’s mission.