Deloitte provides a clear and simple answer to this question in their “Analytics for Manufacturers” guide.  Their bottom line? Data-driven insights are a strategic necessity.

In recent years, there is no business discipline that has moved to the forefront of the business community’s collective consciousness more than business intelligence. 

The following chart illustrates Google search interest in “business intelligence” topics over the past 5 years.

"If you want to motivate employees, stop following your instincts and adopt a data-driven approach." - Harvard Business Review

Data is trending, and while private equity deal teams increasingly give lip service to the importance of data-driven operations, their tactics often miss the mark.  Of the hundreds of companies we've consulted for, nearly all default to Excel spreadsheets, PowerPoints, and PDFs to promote data intelligence.  

"Transparency is not just a buzzword; it may be a necessity for business survival in the 21st century." - Glassdoor

Successful execution is what matters most, even if the model has been around for decades. Airbnb wasn’t the first clearinghouse for C2C home rentals, but its execution was unprecedented.  Excite, Yahoo, and Ask Jeeves came first, but none delivered as successfully as Google.

“If you want to improve the quality of performance in any area, improve or increase the frequency of the feedback.” — Charles Coonradt, The Game of Work

For many private equity firms, managing a portfolio of companies can feel more like controlled chaos than strategic execution. Rather than spending time on key partnerships, hires, and acquisitions, deal teams are often consumed chasing down performance data in an effort to understand what's happening on the ground. Why? Because manually harnessing data is often a herculean task that interferes with daily operations.

Private Equity investors make investment decisions based on balance sheets and P&L statements – typically in Excel, the tried-and-true tool of choice. Yet most firms struggle to keep up with running the real-time reporting race needed to move companies forward, post-acquisition. Portfolio companies are often saddled with multiple ERP systems and fragmented financial and operational data. Too many reports originate from too many disparate sources, and there’s too little time to separate signal from noise.