Big Data/Analytics

Manufacturers are increasingly deploying digital technologies to boost efficiencies and optimize their production lines. But while sensors, data and processing can provide actionable information, manufacturers still need humans with the skill and ability to manage it all.

Talk of machines replacing most customer-facing staff, let alone company managers, has so far been little more than that: talk.

You'll need to be a data analytics nerd, but also an emotionally intelligent caregiver. And while your leadership qualities will still be valued, you'd better not get all hierarchical and start telling people what to do. Welcome to the C-suite of 2021.

D'Addario, a manufacturer of guitar and orchestral strings, as well as other musical instrument parts, has a lineage that goes all the way back to 1680 Italy. But the company's got both feet facing forward when it comes to keeping up with digital technology.

As mid-market companies face a growing number of challenges, many are using data analytics to reduce their struggles and boost performance.

Continuing advances in data analytics and communications technology are giving companies today an unprecedented ability to offer customers products tailored to their needs. But whether people want a company's senior staff knowing what they just had for breakfast is a different matter altogether.

As a CEO, you understand the importance of anticipating customer needs, and the corresponding need for gleaning insight from a torrent of data. As a result, like other business leaders, you likely value analytics more than ever today.

Finding actionable insight amid the slush pile of big data is a challenge for all companies today, no matter what their size. But mid-marketers may be missing out on one of the key solutions that larger companies have all adopted: electronic data interchange.

While the future of data-driven manufacturing offers many promises for enhanced manufacturing efficiency and production, it also will come with many challenges.

A recent study by MIT's Center for Digital Business found that to fully digitally transform a business, two key factors must work together to drive the process: an investment in technology and an investment in leadership. According to the study, companies that make the investment in both leadership and technology are 26% more profitable than their industry peers.