There is a continued opportunity for consumer products companies to more effectively leverage the growing volume of available data to them to drive actionable and focused analytics insights for their business. According to Clarkston Consulting’s Analytics & Insights Indicator, which surveyed approximately 100 consumer products professionals, only 50% felt their insights were being shared across the organization. Considering how important it is to understand and adapt to the changing needs of today’s consumer, this is a critical imperative for consumer products companies.

Consumer products companies have made great strides in their ability to capture massive volumes of data, but could benefit from a more systematic approach to turn this data into actionable insights. In doing so, we would challenge our clients to apply a simple framework to ensure that their insights are actionable.

Organizational Alignment:

Ensure there is alignment around how the strategic objectives of your business and the insights that you are looking to glean. In short, these insights should help you better understand how you will win in the market.

Understanding of Competencies that will Drive Value:

Often, organizations make investments in capabilities that are not in support of the business objectives or key areas of differentiation. Are investments allowing us to move faster in the market? Are we gaining increased visibility to make more effective decisions? Do we have a greater context to strategy?

Activation:

What action are you taking to change the result? Are you considering the ways in which insights realized could be shared throughout the organization? How are these insights reflective of performance against the business objectives and required competencies? And, perhaps most importantly, what actions are you taking as an organization to act against the insights?

Actionable Insights Framework:

We share our framework below at a high-level, including the questions you can ask as it relates to these insights.

Clarkston Consulting’s Actionable Insights Framework