Insights From Medicine Every Business Leader Should Know

Regular checkups with a doctor is not everyone’s favorite activity, but we go because we want to be as healthy as possible. We go so often we call them “routine” checkups. We give doctors a great deal of respect, trust, and follow their advice. But it’s often overlooked that they have a process, and that process is built on a foundation of data and analytics. This data driven process helps evaluate the health of an individual and when unhealthy, establish a diagnosis and develop a treatment plan.

• Data is gathered by asking questions about age, gender, family history, height and weight
• More data is gathered through physical testing by measuring height, weight, and blood pressure or even collecting blood
• This data is analyzed and compared to benchmarks of what is healthy and normal
• A diagnosis or root cause is determined
• A treatment plan is developed

One would assume companies would find these well-established medical practices of data driven decision making useful in maintaining a healthy, high performing business but research from Harvard Business Review and NewVantage Partners indicates “Companies Are Failing in Their Efforts to Become Data-Driven” after surveying c-level technology and business executives representing very large corporations such as American Express, Ford Motor, General Electric, General Motors, and Johnson & Johnson.

• 72% of survey participants report that they have yet to forge a data culture
• 69% report that they have not created a data-driven organization
• 53% state that they are not yet treating data as a business asset
• 52% admit that they are not competing on data and analytics

To help address these gaps, SAP is significantly investing in bringing more intelligent insights to companies so they can run their best.

• Identify unhealthy parts of their business
• Solve business problems
• Optimize operations,
• Achieve strategic objectives
• Generate shareholder value

For example, through a partnership with S&P Capital IQ and SAP Analytics Cloud, we’ve developed The Street Scorecard to help companies identify potential cash conversion cycle, cost reduction, and service level improvement opportunities across Finance, Supply Chain and Procurement. This “outside-in” diagnostic follows the medical process outlined above by comparing 5 core business KPIs to those of their peers in their industry leveraging publicly available financial statement data. This minimally invasive procedure often helps businesses evaluate their health and determine whether or not more detailed investigation of these business areas could potentially yield benefits.

For when that more detailed investigation is warranted, we’re also creating The Ops Health Check which will help customers directly connect to raw data transactions, calculate operating performance with the metrics that matter per business process area, assess maturity, and quantify the potential financial benefit of improving performance. Companies can use this intelligence to develop a treatment plan, identify strategic initiatives, and prioritize those initiatives with the most benefit potential.

To request a Street Scorecard analysis for your company today, please contact your SAP Account Executive.

*This article will be updated with more information for the Ops Health Check when complete in Q2 2020