Peter Drucker famously said, “You can’t manage what you don’t measure” companies and businesses owners across the industry and along the supply chain and the value chain strive daily towards growth in order to become top market performers and your data analytics matter a lot,
Hopefully by end of this article you will believe, just like us, that data can make or brake businesses nowadays by taking advantage of all its groove, this is especially important for all brick and mortar companies out there such as skilled trades and professional contractors as well as hospitality companies and SMEs, because it is no longer about working super hard, which is fine, but working smarter making now all the difference in business.
Developing homerun innovations elevating company´s productivity in the marketplace has become a major priority, small and medium sized companies in the marketplace have improved so far their data management practices however these capabilities must be strategic and accesible, unfortunately critical information and tools are often still locked away from total leverage and strategy can unlock it.
Data is, besides todays currency, the main ingredient fueling company growth and when used fresh and appropriately it has the power to work out some magic for companies enhancing decision making process as well as turning your back of house tasks into flawless daily operations for the benefit of your teams and bottom line.
The challenge facing most company owners lies in finding ways to evaluate and deliver this information to decision makers in a timely manner with the purpose of building a successful operation althroughout allowing data analysis to atomatically evaluate inputs from multiple sources in order to fruitfuly support your proposed business strategy avoiding headwinds towards better business outcomes.
Another challenge within the industry is that we should stop operating companies with a 20th century mindset and start leaning onto 21st century approach, this is easier said than done and this is one of the main reason why we do what we do, we know that data analytics can be the push the industry needs to scale up couple notches enhancing business networks and value therefore strenghtening the marketplace.
To overcome obstacules new tools and and better understanding of today´s business environment is needed in order to better connect market requirements with current world trends, data and its proper management has a lot to do with this new business mindset adoption allowing business owners to become more resourceful ensuring more successful business operations, data is your upper hand.
Althroughout our articles we usually evaluate and analyse the hospitality and maintenance industries both sectors growing at steady pace above 5% CAGR, however the way how business is perceived and gained will vary forcing company owners and internal teams to gear up towards this new business reality which seems to get tougher and more hostile by days.
Find here below top reasons why data analytics matter more than you think.
Boosting your revenue
Analytics help you growing your sales by determining which products work for which segments, figuring out trends trends more efficiently
Reducing operating costs
Maximize effectiveness by determining where capital is going which areas require investing and cutting costs to improve workflows.
Minimizing risks
There are many different variables out there that can potentially harm your company, therefore assessing risks can be implemented through analytics allowing you to stay ahead of hazards theatening performance.
Competitive Advantage
Your data increases consumer demand by helping you to better understand target audience, internally labour is in short supply and staff welcomes digitization which eases tasks, externally clients feel in better hands when their expectations are fully met.
When business owners such as professional service suppliers as well as end customers together with their internal teams realize the potential data holds they will upgrade and committ towards technological advanced solutions, however everything has its upsides and downsides.
Innovations are questioned bacause inmediate results are expected no matter what almost inmediately and for the most part it happens, once properly implemented data shows tangible outcomes, but let us dive into the bad and the ugly about data as we have already talked long about the goodies.
Often technology is perceived as an extra costs for your company as well as the training and time involved for implementation, these are temporary downsides that are pretty much expected, however there are not just shortcomings but risks associated with technology that are frequently overlooked if innovations are not handled appropriately leaving doors open for cyber criminals to damage your business and brand, remember that eveyone is after data whether for good intentions or mean ones.
This causes challenges for business owners who stand at a crossroad whether to adopt and upgrade technology or disregard it all, hence putting companies and their teams on hold to really go after their fullest business potential. Yes there is cyber threats but that does not mean that business owners should not persue innovations and its upsides that brings to business within the marketplace, this is where reeducating the market is needed helping to discard fears and misinformation as well as delivering knowledge about how safe advanced technology solutions are regardless of cyber attackers.
Reeducating the marketplace in terms of today´s technological landscape is necessary, by doing so many preconeptions about innovations will be removed, also learning new methodologies and taking advantage of what innovations really bring to the table for business owners is the way to go especially since we live in a continous changing ecosystem where being adaptable is key,
Basically the main point of this article is this heads up, cyber attacks are a raising force to be reckoned with, these professional thiefs know there are certain verticals who have no or pretty low cyber barriers which increases their success ratio for stealing businesses relevant data, therefore the Hospitality industry together with SMEs and professional contractors in the trades are on target, this should trigger the industry to be on the watch out establishing best protocols of action and putting systems in place to avoid cyber attacks.
Within the supplychain cyber security can feel unimportant or an invisible back of house issue, nevertheless research shows that we should care about it since cyber attacks just in Spain have an average cost of 100K€ per SMEs this is no good news for your p&l balance, the bigger the company the more gateways the riskier it gets, basically if tech giants like Facebook and Linkedin amongst others have been cyber attacked then everyone is a potential victim.
Dismissing these threats can turn out to be ugly and costly business wise with cyber criminals increasingly targeting companies across the supply chain rippling through the entire vendor ecosystems, cyber attackers are coming up with advanced scams often using AI which is harder to spot out, this is where reeducation within the sector comes into play as companies need to be secured through knowledge and knowhow about proper ways to handle potential cyber threats without fearing technological business evolution,
Cyber attackers pull any trick out of the hat, from network hacking to spammers and fishing emails are sent out in hundres if not thousands to random companies in hopes someone somewhere makes the fatal mistake, all it takes is a gentle click on the wrong banner and voliá! it all goes down hill from there onwards regardless of who did it Management C suite or front line collaborators, everyone works just fine.
For instances a company´s CEO can be now impersonated with AI applications tricking management into carrying out hazardous tasks or a CFO mistakenly can end up wiring the wrong payment amount to the wrong vendor´s account because at the end of the day who recalls bank accounts? You might be able to trace back the amount and claim it if you are that lucky,
In Spain there are about 3M SMEs and it is also one of most ciber attacked countries world wide, then it is all about prevention and not reacting nd as company owner you should really dive into this making it a priority for the welbeing of businesses without counting on your technology vendors, rather your protection from cyber threats should be instilled within your organization at all times because your company and not your suppliers, unless you have hired a cybersecurity professional firm, is responsable for your customer´s data.
Technology, as Dire Straits well known song “Six blade knife” states is something powerfull yet potentially dangerous, can create wonderful tools for pretty much any purpose as well as it can collapse just about any system these days, therefore if you are to hire a professional cybersecurity firm to cover all your organizations points of entry for potential cyber risks please ensure your IT contracts includes data breach risk response services allowing you to maniouver appropriately in the case of necessity, otherwise you are exposing your business to weeks of cleanup, reputation damage and potential lawsuits.
Overcoming cyber threats takes a lot massive action from companies because doing nothing against it will only cause your business to end up paying costly claims as well as burying the brand under ground, instead your best bet is Investing time and resources as well as conducting risk assessments in order to identify potential risks in the network taking into account how your business collect classify and store sensitive data establishing encryption protocols and access controls against unauthorized agents, and to test your readiness you should run cyber attack simulations.
We hope we have somehow cleared concerns about how much data can do for our companies taking all necessary precautions because cyber risks are invisible until they are not. If your business falls into the trap your sure shot is prevention training and newer information allowing you to avoid massive cyber issues and also keeping you alive to fight another day within the business arena but wiser and stronger.
