Gone are the days when an excellent product, strong client service and a solid understanding of customer needs would suffice to keep a business viable—let alone profitable. In today’s competitive and increasingly information- dependent world, mid-market company leaders need quick and reliable access to key data for effective decision making.
Meanwhile, ever-increasing amounts of “big data” acquired by mid-market firms pose an additional challenge: finding the information needed for a specific business function. This has meant making sure the CTO or CIO has the staff and technology needed to sift through voluminous facts and figures, extract the relevant portions, and provide their CEOs with answers to their questions, fast.
These challenges can be addressed with data blending. A recent Harvard Business Review study defined data blending as “the process of combining data from multiple sources to create an actionable analytic data set either for business decision making or for driving a specific business process.”
Essentially a data analytics methodology and toolset combined, data blending “gives business analysts self-service solutions to cleanse, enrich and join together the data they require,” according to HBR. In addition, these tools enable access to information from any number of disparate sources and formats. Data blending also allows managers to gather, synthesize and interpret data independently—without having to depend on IT specialists.
A study from the Aberdeen Group claims that with data blending, mid-market firms can outsmart—rather than outspend—their competition. Top-performing midsize organizations utilize data blending tools “to enable self-sufficient users and rapid time-to-insight,” the study said.
A primary reason for investing in data blending, according to Aberdeen, is the critical need to merge data from multiple sources, often in incompatible formats. And because managers can deploy these tools without IT specialists, they can get what they need quickly, “so more of their precious time can be devoted to analysis.”
Aberdeen’s research showed that mid-market analytics leaders were 3.6 times as likely to deploy data-blending tools in the line of business than mid-market analytics followers; 57% have improved the speed of decision making; and 35% have increased trust in the data underlying their analysis.
Data blending, the study concludes, enables mid-market firms to access, integrate and enrich data for more effective analysis. Mid-market leaders are using these capabilities for accelerated decision making, improved trust in data and analytics, and to enable a higher percentage of self-service users.
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1:00 - 5:00 pm
Over 70% of Executives Surveyed Agree: Many Strategic Planning Efforts Lack Systematic Approach Tips for Enhancing Your Strategic Planning Process
Executives expressed frustration with their current strategic planning process. Issues include:
Steve Rutan and Denise Harrison have put together an afternoon workshop that will provide the tools you need to address these concerns. They have worked with hundreds of executives to develop a systematic approach that will enable your team to make better decisions during strategic planning. Steve and Denise will walk you through exercises for prioritizing your lists and steps that will reset and reinvigorate your process. This will be a hands-on workshop that will enable you to think about your business as you use the tools that are being presented. If you are ready for a Strategic Planning tune-up, select this workshop in your registration form. The additional fee of $695 will be added to your total.
2:00 - 5:00 pm
Female leaders face the same issues all leaders do, but they often face additional challenges too. In this peer session, we will facilitate a discussion of best practices and how to overcome common barriers to help women leaders be more effective within and outside their organizations.
Limited space available.
10:30 - 5:00 pm
General’s Retreat at Hermitage Golf Course
Sponsored by UBS
General’s Retreat, built in 1986 with architect Gary Roger Baird, has been voted the “Best Golf Course in Nashville” and is a “must play” when visiting the Nashville, Tennessee area. With the beautiful setting along the Cumberland River, golfers of all capabilities will thoroughly enjoy the golf, scenery and hospitality.
The golf outing fee includes transportation to and from the hotel, greens/cart fees, use of practice facilities, and boxed lunch. The bus will leave the hotel at 10:30 am for a noon shotgun start and return to the hotel after the cocktail reception following the completion of the round.
