Today's most successful companies are Intelligent Companies that use the best available data to inform their decision making. This is called Evidence-Based Management and is one of the fastest growing business trends of our times. Intelligent Companies bring together tools such as Business Intelligence, Analytics, Key Performance Indicators, Balanced Scorecards, Management Reporting and Strategic Decision Making to generate real competitive advantages. As information and data volumes grow at explosive rates, the challenges of managing this information is turning into a losing battle for most companies and they end up drowning in data while thirsting for insights. This is made worse by the severe skills shortage in analytics, data presentation and communication. This latest book by best-selling management expert Bernard Marr will equip you with a set of powerful skills that are vital for successful managers now and in the future. Increase your market value by gaining essential skills that are in high demand but in short supply. Loaded with practical step-by-step guidance, simple tools and real life examples of how leading organizations such as Google, CocaCola, Capital One, Saatchi & Saatchi, Tesco, Yahoo, as well as Government Departments and Agencies have put the principles into practice. The five steps to more intelligent decision making are: Step 1: More intelligent strategies by identifying strategic priorities and agreeing your real information needs Step 2: More intelligent data by creating relevant and meaningful performance indicators and qualitative management information linked back to your strategic information needs Step 3: More intelligent insights by using good evidence to test and prove ideas and by analysing the data to gain robust and reliable insights Step 4: More intelligent communication by creating informative and engaging management information packs and dashboards that provide the essential information, packaged in an easy-to-read way Step 5: More intelligent decision making by fostering an evidence-based culture of turning information into actionable knowledge and real decisions "e;Bernard Marr did it again! This outstanding and practical book will help your company become more intelligent and more successful. Marr takes the fields of business-intelligence, analytics and scorecarding to bring them together into a powerful and easy-to-follow 5-step framework. The Intelligent Company is THE must-read book of our times."e; Bruno Aziza, Co-author of best-selling book Drive Business Performance and Worldwide Strategy Lead, Microsoft Business Intelligence "e;Book after book Bernard Marr is redefining the fundamentals of good business management. The Intelligent Company is a must read in these changing times and a reference you will want on your desk every day!"e; Gabriel Bellenger, Accenture Strategy

Today's most successful companies are Intelligent Companies that use the best available data to inform their decision making. This is called Evidence-Based Management and is one of the fastest growing business trends of our times. Intelligent Companies bring together tools such as Business Intelligence, Analytics, Key Performance Indicators, Balanced Scorecards, Management Reporting and Strategic Decision Making to generate real competitive advantages.As information and data volumes grow at explosive rates, the challenges of managing this information is turning into a losing battle for most companies and they end up drowning in data while thirsting for insights. This is made worse by the severe skills shortage in analytics, data presentation and communication.This latest book by best-selling management expert Bernard Marr will equip you with a set of powerful skills that are vital for successful managers now and in the future. Increase your market value by gaining essential skills that are in high demand but in short supply.Loaded with practical step-by-step guidance, simple tools and real life examples of how leading organizations such as Google, CocaCola, Capital One, Saatchi & Saatchi, Tesco, Yahoo, as well as Government Departments and Agencies have put the principles into practice.The five steps to more intelligent decision making are:* Step 1: More intelligent strategies - by identifying strategic priorities and agreeing your real information needs* Step 2: More intelligent data - by creating relevant and meaningful performance indicators and qualitative management information linked back to your strategic information needs* Step 3: More intelligent insights - by using good evidence to test and prove ideas and by analysing the data to gain robust and reliable insights* Step 4: More intelligent communication - by creating informative and engaging management information packs and dashboards that provide the essential information, packaged in an easy-to-read way* Step 5: More intelligent decision making - by fostering an evidence-based culture of turning information into actionable knowledge and real decisions"Bernard Marr did it again! This outstanding and practical book will help your company become more intelligent and more successful. Marr takes the fields of business-intelligence, analytics and scorecarding to bring them together into a powerful and easy-to-follow 5-step framework. The Intelligent Company is THE must-read book of our times."Bruno Aziza, Co-author of best-selling book Drive Business Performance and Worldwide Strategy Lead, Microsoft Business Intelligence"Book after book Bernard Marr is redefining the fundamentals of good business management. The Intelligent Company is a must read in these changing times and a reference you will want on your desk every day!"Gabriel Bellenger, Accenture Strategy

ABOUT THE AUTHOR xiFOREWORD xvACKNOWLEDGEMENTS xix1 THE DATA-KNOWLEDGE CRUNCH 1Introduction 1The data and information explosion 2The failure to turn data into mission-critical insights 3Investment in business intelligence 6Evidence-based management 9Conclusions 122 THE EVIDENCE-BASED MANAGEMENT MODEL 13Introduction 13Evidence-based medicine 15The scientific method 15The EbM model explained 16Conclusions 203 IDENTIFYING OBJECTIVES AND INFORMATION NEEDS 21Introduction 21How a police 'SWAT' team uses EbM 22Step 1 - sub-step one: what do we need to know? 25Strategic performance management frameworks 30A strategy map as a hypothesis 50Who needs to know what, when and why? 52What are the most important unanswered questions? 54Ten steps for creating good KPQs and KAQs 58Conclusions 634 COLLECTING THE RIGHT DATA 65Introduction 65Key performance indicators and building evidence 67Collecting the right data 69What is evidence and what is data? 70Data collection methodologies 71Quantitative data collection methods 72Qualitative data techniques 78Using both quantitative and qualitative data 83Making data collection part of the job 84Engaging people in data collection 87Assigning meaning to data 89Reliability and validity 93Planning the data collection process 94The role of IT infrastructure and applications in the collection of data 96Conclusions 1005 ANALYSE THE DATA AND GAIN INSIGHTS 101Introduction 101Data analysis 104Budgeting and planning 112Reporting and consolidation 113Value-driver modelling 113Experimentation 117Role of IT infrastructure and applications in analysing data 129Conclusions 1326 PRESENT AND COMMUNICATE THE INFORMATION 135Introduction 135How to get the attention of decision makers 137Publishing analogies 138Guidance for presenting information 144The role of IT infrastructure and applications in presenting information 151Conclusions 1607 TURNING INFORMATION INTO ACTIONABLE KNOWLEDGE 163Introduction 163Ensure that the available evidence is used to make the best decisions 167Turning knowledge into action 172The knowing doing gap 173Conclusions 1888 CONCLUSION AND ACTION CHECKLIST 189Introduction 189Action checklist 193Final words 207REFERENCES 209INDEX 213