Knowledge come from various places, experience is one and analysis is another. We can either try, fail, learn, try, fail, learn and eventually do it right. We can also try to understand first and then make a decision.

E.O. Wilson put it well: “We are drowning in information, while starving for wisdom...”

Have you reflected on the amount of information there is, no matter what you want to do? There is information high and low, everywhere! How do we absorb it? How do we utilize it? Let me give you an example: Let’s say you want to buy a new car, which ultimately will work as a tool for you, and you have 25,000€ to spend. This might sound easy, but when you start thinking about it – there is a few things you always keep in mind.

• Brand?
• Financing?
• Engine type?
• Insurance?
• Colour?
• Lifetime?
• Size?

How long could this list be? Very long, perhaps too long. Sooner or later, all these questions will drive you crazy. Further on you will make a decision based on feeling or move into the classic state of analysis paralysis. I assume that we can agree there is a lot to keep in mind, even for the simplest of things.

Is there something called information overload? Probably, if you are human. Instead of being a human, with “human-like” problems, imagine you are an organisation. Global, local, big or small. Think about the questions you want to answer in each department:

• Marketing
• Supply Chain
• Procurement
• Sales
• HR

The list goes on. What would it mean to make use of all that information before the decision? Everyone in an organisation is generating information (data) everyday, all the time. What if you could collect this? What if you could use the collected data to understand and take action?

Let me ask you, in a decision making process – wouldn’t you want to know everything there is to know? The answer is of course yes. Hence decision making is difficult.

But you also need to understand this parts of analysis: The output of your analysis is only as good as the data going in.  It is essential to understand that the quality of your data is as important as actually analysing it. One would not work without the other. Given the small amount of time and effort needed to apply analytics solutions the returns could be enormous.

But again, it all depends on how you decide to embrace it. Like this as a start?

Let me finish this post by letting you read the rest if E.O. Wilson’s quote.

“…The world henceforth will be run by synthesizers, people able to put together the right information at the right time, think critically about it, and make important choices wisely”. - E.O. Wilson