How often do you make important decisions in business – and indeed in life in general – based on your gut feeling? Without analysing data or examining metrics, but acting intuitively, only for the result to exceed all your expectations?
In the business world, it’s common to idealise a data-driven approach. But in reality, most key decisions are still made on the basis of what we call intuition. And it’s not magic. It’s our accumulated experience, learned patterns, past mistakes and knowledge that the brain processes automatically. The problem is that blind faith in reports often leads entrepreneurs astray from reality.
How often does intuition become not an alternative to analysis, but a genuine substitute for it, in situations where the data itself is unreliable? Fincraft Capital is trying to get to the bottom of this issue.
The Illusion of Clean DataWhatever modern CRM systems may promise, it is difficult to obtain complete data in the real world of business. When analysing the latest statistics, we see the result. The figures record correlations, but do not explain the causes.
It would seem that nothing could be more accurate than website traffic data or end-to-end analytics. But in reality, it turns out that 40 per cent of the traffic coming to the site is what is known as unlabelled data. To put it simply, we cannot find out how, from where, or via which advert four out of ten potential customers are coming to us! And building a strategy solely on assumptions is a mathematical error.
On the other hand, it is impossible to manage a business without figures. CAC, conversion rate, and cost per lead are metrics without which a business becomes unmanageable. The most costly mistakes a business owner can make are not knowing how much a single actual customer costs them, and what proportion of enquiries, calls or abandoned baskets actually turns into a paid order.
But there is a fundamental difference between verifiable data and guesswork based on untracked traffic. The former is the foundation. The latter is an assumption that is often passed off as fact, according to the dropshipping experts at Fincraft Capital.
The ‘Disclaim Responsibility’ button: why managers hide behind ExcelKodak was the first to invent the digital camera, but on the basis of ‘smart’ reports and arguments backed up by figures, it concluded that this was not what the company needed. Microsoft missed the start of the mobile and internet era because its management was convinced that users would not want to work outside the Windows ecosystem. And there was no one prepared to question the analysts’ ‘outdated’ forecasts.
Managers and analysts spend hours compiling reports and Excel spreadsheets. And it’s not just about the routine system adopted within the organisation. In fact, figures are the best way to shirk responsibility. And those who claim to make decisions based on figures are, in doing so, showing that they take no responsibility whatsoever.
In large companies, this has become an epidemic. Nobody wants to take risks, and the argument ‘the figures showed’ has become a convenient excuse for any unpleasant situation, according to experts at Fincraft Capital Czech Republic. Blame it on the algorithm, or the market.