The current business
environment is plagued
by palpable and overwhelming
uncertainty. Just think of the
breadth of challenges leaders
must face on a regular basis: Is the
pandemic going to irreversibly
alter the competitive landscape?
How might climate change affect
our customer base, supply chain,
or operational capabilities? Could
a poorly funded start-up rapidly
leapfrog our offerings by gaining
access to cheap capital?
Despite these apparently
paralyzing questions, the pace and dynamism of today’s competitive
business environment means that
decision-makers at all levels of
an organization do have to act.
Sitting on one’s hands is not a
viable business strategy. Instead,
leaders should embrace a strategy
of navigating uncertainty via
“informed action”, the strategic
use of analytics to actively extract
insight from data without blindly
deferring to it.
Informed action offers an antidote
to the poison of information
overload and its accompanying
ailment of analysis paralysis.
