Is it the time right to enter a new market? To downsize? To collaborate with competitors? These are the types of decisions companies face that data analytics could help them make. An Economist Intelligence Unit report sponsored by PricewaterhouseCoopers explains that business leaders are using data and analytics to some degree in their decision-making processes, but could do a lot more to leverage data for smarter choices.

The 2014 Global Data and Analytics Survey report, titled “Gut & Gigabytes: Capitalising on the Art & Science in Decision Making,” gathered data from 1,135 senior executives from around the world, representing 18 different industries. The survey found that there is still a tendency for business leaders to focus more on experience and advice rather than data to make important choices. However, it also showed that the organizations that do embrace data-driven decision making tend to be glad they did.

The report took a closer look at decisions being made by companies and found that one thing is clear: executives are making big choices, and they’re doing so frequently. Many respondents—44 percent—said they make a large business decision every month in their job, and 35 percent said they do so every three months. The timing of these decisions varies, but it looks like executives don’t necessarily have control over when they have to make big calls. The survey found that in 30 percent of cases, decisions were made based on an opportunity too important to be ignored, and another 25 percent of decisions happened after a delay of some sort.

Read more: www.corpcounsel.com/id=1202672640553/Is-Data-Influencing-Csuite-Decision-Making#ixzz3FYKQUfhP

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