How many of us have heard or even said the phrase, "If it's not broke, don't fix it."  While on rare occasions this may be the correct approach, it is a statement that stops innovation and creativity in its tracks.  You might as well say, "Because we've always done it that way."   (Read about an experiment with five monkeys that proves my point.)

When is the last time you heard about someone accomplishing something noteworthy simply by leaving the status quo alone? Analytics challenges us to improve existing processes regardless of whether they appear to need fixing or not.

Let me ask you this: When is the best time to implement change or seek to improve an existing process?  When it breaks? I don't think so, because when something breaks all anyone wants to know is when it will be working again, not better, but "as usual."

Of course you can't change everything at once, and that is why we prioritize what gets handled first.  And you probably guessed it already, analytics should be involved in the process of prioritizing these types of decisions to maximize your organization's likelihood of overall success.

If you want to hear how others have gone about being successful fixing things that weren't even broke, then you will want to attend SAS Global Forum 2015 in Dallas Texas, April 26-29th, where you'll hear keynote speakers Jeff Ma, Jake Porway, and Alan Schwarz, as well as your peers giving their own presentations throughout the conference.