It’s undeniable that any company, big or small, can benefit from a hiring a data consultant. These top 5 reasons to hire a data consultant will positively effect most businesses.
Today, data is available everywhere, but knowing which data to focus on and when is not easy to determine. Therefore, a data consultant can be extremely helpful to help determine what is the most important while gathering actionable information for building the foundation of a strategic business plan.
1. New Data
Everyone is talking about the importance of data these days for good reason, it’s proven to benefit companies. A recent study shows data-driven companies outperform competitors up to 20%. This is why we have this as the number one reason to hire a data consultant. Data has proven to be a powerful tool for enhancing strategic growth and meeting business goals. It can be used to validate existing and new strategies while reducing the stress of making new business decisions.
Updated data is extremely helpful, but it can be a time consuming process. A data consultant will determine what data information is most important. They will gather and organize the existing data, provide a gap analysis, collect new data and analyze it for custom insights. It’s a big time saver. New, well-organized and filtered data can be a game changer for you business.
2. Custom Business Insights
Although, good data is the most important, data alone is limited. Thankfully, a data consultant will analyze all the data to provide custom business insights. These insights tell a story about the business as it relates to current performance metrics and goals. They spur internal conversations and encourage taking steps forward to gain full advantage of the uncovered insights.
However, getting the insights is a tedious and time consuming process. It requires digging into the existing data and seeking new data to substantiate the findings. A data consultant will do the time-saving work of gathering and of sifting through the data. They will apply it to validate current business goals and identify new opportunities without bias or loyalty to old paradigms. They look at the business with a fresh perspective. Then these new insights will be used to guide future decisions and the business strategy.
3. Encourage Team Building
Thirdly is team building. High performing teams have been proven to work more effectively together and realize higher revenues. However, teamwork can erode when business gets busy. Changes naturally occur and communication starts to break down. This creates silos, often unintentionally. Silos become barriers to solving problems and fostering new ideas.
Trust and transparency are imperative to building teams. They lead to better communication and the exchange of more ideas. People are more willing to take risks, offer up suggestions, test new ways of working and engage at a higher level. A data consultant facilitates a process that fosters team building. They encourage everyone to participate and get feedback from even the most reserved team members. They creates the opportunity for the leadership team to reconnect, shares idea, renew professional excitement and gain alignment on reaching strategic goals.
4. Gain Strategic Alignment
Strategic alignment of the entire team is required to achieve big goals. Successful companies have a clear strategic plan that allows everyone to work toward the larger corporate goals. Strategic alignment increases the odds of those goals being successfully met. Often companies, departments and teams become disjointed.
The data consultant will identify misalignments and facilitate team discussions to clarify goals and gain alignment. Then once the leadership team and management have agreed upon the goals they can then align departmental and individual employee goals to support them. This way everyone is working to positively impact the overall strategy.
5. Inspire Innovation
Lastly, to inspire innovation
is likely the most impactful reason. It is capturing magic in a bottle. When companies are able to innovate they can dominate the market. They enjoy higher premiums and create demand. Innovators drive untapped demand by introducing new products, features and benefits before the consumer is even aware they want or need it.
