Back to School
Writing by Jorgen on Friday, 25 of January , 2008 at 1:25 pm
The beginning of the year is always a period to look back but even more important to look forward. On the radio I hear a lot of commercials from different training institutes urging people to add their specific course, study or lecture to their 2008 curriculum. I expect that employees are now running towards their management requesting training in new features of tool XYZ and so on. Business Intelligence (BI) is a field of study that has been dominated by a strong technical driven focus. Business Intelligence supports better decisions, by making a strategy, objective or process – accountable, adjustable or adaptive. Shapiro has developed a knowledge management pyramid with three layers: data, information and knowledge. Unlocking data and transforming this into information will lead to more knowledge and insight. Professor Weggeman defines knowledge as: Information * Experience and Attitude (K=I * EVA). He states that hard facts, information or explicit knowledge can only lead to benefits when combined with implicit or tacit knowledge. Only when something is done with the information, such as sharing, comparing or merging with something else will lead to performance improvement. Choo adds another element to the mix. On top of explicit and tacit knowledge he adds cultural knowledge. Those are the beliefs and values that exist within an organization. Therefore it is safe to conclude that when it concerns performance improvement or strategy alignment the real barriers are: communication, culture and change management. BI from a technical point of view is just an enabler. So why is our community still so much focused on technology. Why is it that instead of subscribing to for example a course in business spirituality we choose the “database administration 2.1” or “Advanced SQL 3.2”?
Perhaps you can find some inspiration in these lyrics: http://www.oldielyrics.com/lyrics/supertramp/school.html
Category: BI Thoughts, Business Intelligence datawarehousing, Business Intelligence strategy
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Comment by Mariska Bulten
Made Saturday, 1 of March , 2008 at 2:30 pm
And that is exactly why BI should be present at and supported by the Board within an organisation: it is part of the information / communication strategy of the entire organisation!
For more input about cultural differences and how to recognize / define them, definitely read the influencial work of Geert Hofstede and interpretations of his work.
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