Apr 20, 2012

3 Steps to making your BI - Business Smart

Just hiring the big partners is not enough. As business owners you have to ensure you derive business value from every investment – most importantly in BI


First of all start with keeping blood flowing in the body and thus your brain. Exercise is not only good for your health but it also makes you smarter. Think of it also as a form of mental nourishment, from just as your body requires food for energy your brain is replenished with oxygen carried by your blood. So as we exercise every muscle and cell in our body, including those between our ears, get invigirated.
According to Gretchen Reynolds ‘exercise does more to bolster thinking than thinking (alone) does’ The reason for that is possibly that if we just sit and think without external stimuli then we get into what is termed as tunnel mental vision, very much like the tunnel vision DMV warns us about if we constantly stare at one specific point of the road when we drive. Regular exercise is a mental foundation as it allows us to reach outside the fixed-framework of technology. Don’t get into a tunnel vision in BI methodologies from the past as they have resulted in less than 50% success. Get outside the standard framework and get scientific.
A.    Think Strategy not tactical solutions:  The first step in BI projects is to think what kind of reports would uses expect five years from now and what are the business goals. Align this with what your technology partners have in mind for the next five years and start your decisions based on this first foundational. Short-term BI thinks of deploying specific reports long term we need to enhance decisions.

B.     Start with a Foundation of Methodology: At the heart of all modern projects is methodology. If you construct anything there is a set methodology. Global methodologies ensure that when US companies construct anything across the planet the steel, design, concrete, coatings, architecture all are in accordance to global standards and processes. BI is no different.   

C.     Use Scientific Checklists: even the most experienced pilots use them. Astronauts, engineers, builders, construction workers, and all logical workers desiring perfection use checklists. Pilots don’t us this to remind them how to fly they use them for things that have been forgotten in the past. A checklist is a scientific method of avoiding failures. Use BI Staged checklists to ensure you have not missed anything. It starts with all the phases of a BI Project and a lot of sub-phases too.

And don’t forget to exercise. Exercise also makes brain cells more efficient. It is now discovered that exercise also creates new brain cells, as due new encounters and lessons. These new cells should empower you to  challenge technocratic dogmas just because they exist, like the one stating that the brain does not create any new cells. Challenge them and exercise your mind too. Each time you learn a new skill new brain cells are created. They only activate when you use these new skills, the more you use these new skills the stronger the cells get wired. While new ideas create new wires, exercise makes these cells more nimble. With exercise your brain will more readily wire many new cells into a neural network thus enhancing cognitive capabilities.

So take a thirty minute walk every day. If you have a dog, like I do, you can use the dog to assist save your head, your work and possibly your life.

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