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Pattern-driven Performance: Should You Start with Tools – or with Talent?

Deloitte Debates

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When you’re looking for patterns of performance, what’s more important, tools or talent?

Companies everywhere are catching onto the wisdom of mining information for patterns of performance. Using a combination of advanced statistical tools and good, old-fashioned experience, they’re discovering and dissecting hidden patterns that can help guide their choices in operations, talent, technology, financial strategy, you name it. For those looking to drive performance in this way, there are two paths forward: start by investing in tools or start by investing in talent.

Here’s the debate.

	Point	Counterpoint
Start with tools. This isn’t complicated. Get the right tools and you’ll be in good shape.	If you have the right data and powerful tools, it’ll be easy to uncover all the patterns you need to know about.	Tools are important, but they have to be in the right hands. Experienced analysts working with business decision makers have a better chance of seeing important signals – and avoiding erroneous conclusions that lead to bad decisions.
	People who understand big-picture business and information are in short supply – but you have to start somewhere. Go ahead and dive in. Buy some tools and get moving.	What if the somewhere you choose to start is the wrong place? If you can’t get the talent you need in-house, look to other options like outside advice, managed analytics or a subscription-based model.
	This isn’t rocket science. Your people can deliver the basics. There’s no need to over-engineer this.	Business is too complicated to rely on inexpert resources. They may not uncover the patterns that are really important. Besides, without the right talent, you won’t even know what tools you need.

	Point	Counterpoint
Start with the right talent. People always come before tools and technology.	Tools have built-in biases. If they’re not in the right hands, those biases get magnified. That can leave big holes. It takes experienced business people to see the whole picture.	People have biases too. At least with tools you know what you’re getting. They can help cut through any people biases to make sure you get the broadest view of what’s possible.
	Patterns are like puzzles. All the pieces are there – what’s missing are people who can put them together. That takes experience, context and nuance.	Actually, patterns are more like mysteries. You have to sift through growing mountains of information – some of which can lead you astray. Powerful tools provide the objectivity needed to cut through the noise.
	Sub-contracting is a good way to get the best talent – wherever they might be. More to the point, it’s hard to make the business case for a large in-house analytics capability, especially when you’re just getting started.	Why do you think that an outsider can know more about my business than we do inside?

My Take

Janet Foutty, National Managing Director, Technology, Deloitte Consulting LLP

If you’re one of the people keeping up with pattern-driven performance, give yourself a pat on the back. You’re ahead of a curve that I believe is going to become one of the next big things. And that’s very good news for anyone who longs for faster, smarter decision-making.

The faster part of the puzzle is especially interesting these days, with companies working so hard to move from hindsight to foresight. The thinking is simple: If you shorten the distance between sensors, signals, analytics and automation, you can drive latency out of any system and capture value faster. Not to mention, speed up decisions every step of the way.

At each stage in this value chain, businesses face the tools-versus-talent debate. In the sensors area, for example, it’s easy to zero in on some hot new wireless technology and just go for it. The same applies in statistical analysis, geospatial analysis and data visualization. All offer plenty of technical bells and whistles for the eager buyer and some are even easy to use.

But there’s a big problem with the “buy technology first” approach: What if you’re not asking the right questions. I know it might sound strange coming from a person who leads Deloitte’s IT services, but I’m “talent first” all the way.

These days, business expectations for information management and analytics are growing just as fast as the range of tools available. Any given week can usher in new techniques, surprise acquisitions, talent on the move and more. It’s a dynamic environment if ever there was one. In the face of that uncertainty, betting on talent is the only way to go.

Look for experienced professionals – we call them black belts – who understand both the possibilities and the limitations of information at all levels. And make sure they excel at uncovering patterns of performance. Whether it’s within data sets, across business functions, or across industries, a person who can discern patterns and anomalies will be an invaluable asset on your analytics journey.

The main quality I see among people who understand patterns is a love of asking provocative, crunchy questions. Here are some examples:

What’s the impact of ongoing global economic (e.g., Greece) and political (e.g., Thailand) turmoil on your own company’s business performance and expansion opportunities?
How can your technology operating model and sourcing decisions take advantage of well-understood innovation maturity cycles in manufacturing?
Will the U.S. health care reform efforts lead to increased fraud from members and providers, forcing the government and health care industries to adopt risk management disciplines similar to those found in financial services companies?

Questions like these are the perfect springboard for diving into patterns that can yield new insights. Get a team of people who know how to ask – and answer – the hard questions together. That’s key to getting good at seeing patterns. And that’s key to making smarter, faster decisions.

A view from Business Analytics

Jane Griffin, Principal, Deloitte Consulting LLP

The explosion of software for business analytics is well underway and in some areas, the price of entry is easily affordable. That makes it tempting for organizations that may be facing a talent crunch to invest first in tools. Sometimes that approach works, but not often.

When it comes to moving an organization toward a culture of fact-based decisions, tools and techniques won’t suffice. Unless those tools are in the hands of business-savvy professionals who know which questions to ask – and where to find the answers – you’re unlikely to build the organizational trust required to drive meaningful change.

The problem, of course, lies in finding that right mix of talent. They represent a rare combination of industry knowledge and functional breadth – with the technical sophistication to know which signals matter most, which tools fit which data sets and how to drive user engagement across the entire value train. That means starting with mortals, not machines.

A view from Workforce Intelligence

Russell Clarke, Director, Deloitte Consulting LLP

When it comes to finding fact-based patterns of performance, talent and technology are two sides of the same coin. Heads, you’re investing in smart people to see the big picture. Tails, you’re spending on technology to help them do their jobs. You can’t have one without the other – and large organizations need both.

That’s especially true in workforce intelligence, the next and last major area in many businesses to embrace a more disciplined approach to decision-making and business optimization. Over the past five to ten years, many organizations have installed HR ERP systems along with many point-solutions, allowing for access to data like never before.

But while some HR organizations may be behind the curve in adopting analytics, there are upsides to being a slow follower. You can learn a lot from seeing how other functions like finance and supply chain have applied analytical processes. By identifying those kinds of patterns, you’ll be in a better position to go after low-hanging fruit.

For example, one company I worked with was moving full speed ahead on a new call center. As a last minute sanity check, they took time to invest in some basic workforce modeling. It didn’t require rocket science to discover that their two hundred million dollar solution wouldn’t solve their problem. All it took was some practical tools in the hands of people who knew how to ask the right questions.

As more executives from finance and operational roles move into HR leadership, many are bringing an analytics perspective to their new jobs. That’s likely to increase the pressure on HR organizations to make the shift to deeper fact-based decision-making.

In the meantime, if you’re asking which comes first in workforce intelligence – talent or tools – the answer is emphatically both.

A view from the Life Sciences sector

Paul Roma, Principal, Deloitte Consulting LLP

More now than ever – especially in health care – information and insights are key to the next generation of business models. Not only is the ability to make sense of data a matter of business survival, it can also be a matter of life and death. That said, uncovering promising patterns of performance in and across different sectors is proving a significant challenge.

Health care is not a mature, standards-based industry at this time. It’s evolving in an environment of unprecedented uncertainty. Lacking a strong set of standards, companies have to put talent first if they hope to make any kind of headway.

The companies I meet with are swimming in data, but lacking the information and insight they need to make decisions with confidence. They’re overloaded with facts and claims, yet missing the context that can drive strategic value. In this environment, a heavy hand from human beings is critical.

Start by making sure you have the right leadership in place to build the capabilities you need. Look for a sharp combination of analytics sophistication and incisive industry knowledge. Then move on to tools and analytical techniques. Give your people every tool they ask for – and then some.

The prices of tools and computing horsepower are coming down, while the cost of top talent is on the rise. Indeed, I see an epidemic on the horizon. The lack of health care technology talent is a global problem that will get much worse before it gets better.

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As used in this document, "Deloitte" means Deloitte Consulting LLP, a subsidiary of Deloitte LLP. Please see www.deloitte.com/us/about for a detailed description of the legal structure of Deloitte LLP and its subsidiaries.