Lead With Numbers, Don’t Chase Them:
The Data-Driven Trap That’s Killing Good Businesses
Gerry Skews
Why being "data-led" is the future of strategic business design
Gerry Skews
Data is the closest thing to truth in any organization — lead by it, don’t be driven by it.
It’s more than a mantra. It’s a blueprint for survival.
Every company today wants to be “data-driven.” Boardrooms chant the phrase like a protective incantation. But somewhere between dashboards and KPIs, the phrase lost its soul — and with it, the point.
The Fallacy of Being “Driven” by Data
A data-driven organisation is, by definition, reactive. It watches, it measures, and then it scrambles.
When customer churn spikes, marketing runs a campaign. When costs rise, finance slashes budgets. When reviews drop, operations tweak the processes.
Sure — it’s better than flying blind. But it's still reacting. It’s like steering your car by staring in the rear-view mirror.
Data-led businesses, by contrast, move differently. They use data not just to diagnose, but to design. They're not just solving problems; they’re structuring systems to avoid them in the first place. They're not reacting to crises — they're predicting and preventing them.
The Shift from Reactive to Proactive - Metrics That Matter
Let’s take a practical example.
Imagine two retail businesses:
Both notice a slight decline in same-store sales.
The data-driven one investigates recent weekly fluctuations, runs customer satisfaction surveys, and adjusts store hours.
The data-led one had already embedded a predictive churn model, tied to product range relevance and pricing sensitivity, and noticed a leading indicator months earlier. It adjusted procurement algorithms and promotional mixes in advance.
- The first reacted,
- The second was ready.
The Power of Small Changes with Big Impacts.
A core message in the book Business by Numbers is that small, measurable shifts can produce disproportionate effects — if you know where to look.
For instance:
A 1% improvement in conversion rate on a £10M sales funnel can yield an extra £100K in revenue — often at near-zero marginal cost. (Other currencies are available)
A 5-day improvement in cash collection cycles can free up enough working capital to avoid high-interest borrowing.
A 0.2 point increase in the Net Promoter Score may be a leading signal for future sales velocity.
But these insights are invisible unless you’ve built the infrastructure to surface them in time. That’s what data-led architecture enables.
From Spreadsheets to Strategy.
Being “data-led” doesn’t mean you need a quantum computer or a plethora of PhDs. It means you structure your business to treat relevant metrics not as occasional input, but as structural foundations — woven into how you plan, price, hire, market, and evolve.
Think:
Formulas for cash conversion efficiency baked into operational reviews.
Algorithms guiding customer segmentation and pricing elasticity embedded in CRM tools.
Models for capital availability and return on investment informing every boardroom decision.
When the maths lives inside the decisions, you are data-led.
A Thought to Lead With
There’s a reason “led” implies leadership — it’s about direction, not reaction. Data doesn’t just tell you what happened. It tells you what to build next.
So next time you hear a colleague say, “We’re data-driven,” ask:
Are we? Or are we just reacting with reports?
Because in a world awash in information, success belongs not to those who chase the numbers — but to those who understand how to lead with them.
©Copyright 2024 Arbite Software Services Ltd. All rights reserved.
We need your consent to load the translations
We use a third-party service to translate the website content that may collect data about your activity. Please review the details in the privacy policy and accept the service to view the translations.