Why Consumer Goods Companies Need Analytics to Compete?

Mark A. Smith in his Information Management Blog titled "Consumer Goods Companies Need Analytics to Compete" contests that given the cutthroat competitive landscape among consumer goods manufacturers, from food and beverage to electronics and automotives, capturing the minds and wallet share of customers, by reaching out to them with the right product and right price is no easy task.

Optimizing business efforts from manufacturing to product and throughout the supply chain to customers requires a comprehensive set of tasks that cannot be done without insights on what has happened in the past and where current activities are going. Those event-driven and demand-driven insights can come through analytics that assess the small but important details of pricing, trade promotions and processes in the supply chain to keep retailers satisfied with inventory levels.

Three Key Questions to Foster Competitive Advantage

James Heskett, a Baker Foundation Professor, Emeritus, at Harvard Business School, examined the degree to which strategy, execution, and culture contribute to organizational success, via 3 key questions that reflect all aspects of competitive sucess:

 





1. If your organization's performance (operating income) = 100%, roughly what percentage is accounted for by the quality of the organization's strategy (clients we target; products, services and results we offer; the way we organize and compensate people, etc.) vs. the quality of the organization's execution of its strategy (the quality of our people, work, processes, decisions, etc.)?

2. If your organization's strategy = 100%, roughly what proportion of its effectiveness is dependent upon and accounted for by the organization's culture (widely-shared values, beliefs, behaviors, rites and rituals, etc.)?

3. If the execution of your organization's strategy = 100%, roughly what proportion of its effectiveness is dependent upon and accounted for by the organization's culture?

The questions reflect all aspects of competitive success.
What do you think?