More than just dashboards: How to turn data into decisions that deliver value
- Mar 24
- 3 min read
Updated: Apr 24
Being “digital” has become a cliché. Most medium and large companies already talk about digital transformation, invest in collaborative platforms, hire data scientists, and roll out dashboards throughout the organization. The problem is that, in far too many cases, all of this remains superficial.
According to MIT Sloan, 70% of companies that claim to be digitized do not use data in critical decisions. Put another way: there are dashboards, but they don’t change what the executive committee decides. Digitization becomes cosmetic when it doesn’t influence resource allocation, business strategy, or pricing.
The difference between companies that capture real value and those that don’t doesn't lie in the technology they implement, but in how they turn data into input for the decisions that define their future.
Three decisions that are worth more than a hundred dashboards
The most common mistake is to start by creating reports for every corner of the organization. Experience shows that it is more effective to do the opposite: identify three strategic decisions where data can make an immediate difference.
In cost-intensive sectors, the first decision is usually pricing. In industries with fierce competition for customers, the critical decision is churn management. In companies with multiple investment projects, the key is capital allocation.
When it is demonstrated—with evidence—that data can help gain a 2- or 3-point margin, anticipate customer churn, or redirect investments, the organization changes. It realizes that this is not a technical issue, but one of competitiveness.
A single version of the truth
Another common obstacle is fragmentation. Finance reports one figure, Sales another, and Operations a third. Committee meetings evolve into debates over which number is correct, rather than decisions on how to proceed. PwC estimates that 40% of companies lack a “single version of the truth” in their data.
Solving this doesn’t require major investments, but rather discipline: a single, validated, and accessible repository with clear governance rules regarding who defines each data point, how it is updated, and how it is communicated. Without this foundation, any ambition for advanced analytics will be nothing more than a layer of makeup over a fragmented system.
C-Suite confidence in data
Data doesn’t make a difference if leaders don’t trust it. Forbes reports that nearly half of executives do not trust their own company's internal data. When that happens, they fall back on intuition or past experience, even in the face of solid evidence.
Trust isn’t decreed; it’s built. First, by ensuring data quality and consistency. Second, by showcasing specific cases where analysis led to better decisions. And third, with executive sponsors who champion data in committees, giving it legitimacy in high-level discussions.
In practice, a CFO who bases resource reallocation on predictive data, or a CCO who advocates for a pricing strategy based on actual elasticity, builds trust. Data begins to be seen as an advantage, not a threat.
Beyond technology
Being truly data-driven isn’t about implementing the most sophisticated tool, but about answering a simple question:
Which of the company’s key decisions today are based on solid evidence, and which are still driven solely by habit or intuition?
McKinsey estimates that companies that succeed by basing their key decisions on data significantly outperform their competitors in terms of financial performance. The difference lies not in the volume of available information, but in how it is used to decide where to invest, what to shut down, and how to capture value.
The main question
In too many organizations, digitalization ends up being a decorative mirror. Systems are installed, dashboards are displayed, but decisions are still made as usual. The uncomfortable question for every C-level executive is:
Are we using data to make decisions differently, or just to present information with more colors?
Because in the end, what separates companies that transform themselves from those that merely switch software isn’t the amount of data they produce, but the ability to turn it into better, faster, and bolder decisions.
About the author
Ricardo Sonneborn is a partner at SummaPartners and has more than 20 years of experience in strategic consulting and corporate finance.