Agile Digital Transformation for Data-Driven CEOs with Power BI

In a world where technology takes over most aspects of life and business, CEOs need a guiding philosophy more than ever to help them add the best possible value to their actions while being able to display ongoing strategic assessment and planning capabilities. Nevertheless, it is often difficult for them to find the right amount of time to collect, cultivate, and analyse data, mostly because CEOs need to prioritize strategic decisions. Change is hard, so digital transformation is tough. However, small changes with the agile methodology and Power BI can add up to produce results and deliver business value by moving the needle slowly but surely. Gently, gently, incrementally!

Data is hard, and change is hard.

Data is essential for CEOs when it comes to running their business, particularly because it offers them an insight into customer behaviour and permits them to take accurate measures of what really matters to their organization. With Power BI, data-driven CEOs can bring a mix of clarity and predictability to the table when it comes to taking measures that affect the short- and long-term future of their organization.

Why Do CEOs Care About Data?

Business data is one of the essential factors CEOs need to take into account to deliver solutions for their organization, so this is the reason for which CEOs are required to be data-savvy. As CEOs are becoming increasingly accountable and their pay is more often than not tied to their performance, it is vital for them to rely on data to do their jobs well. This is where Power BI can help, allowing CEOs to build robust data models and sharp reports that will boost their BI efforts considerably.

Top 10 Key Performance Indicators CEOs Need to Know

In a sea of performance indicators that CEOs need to consider when it comes to analysing business solutions for short- and long-term growth, it may be difficult to pick the top ones that are truly essential for offering an insight on how the core of the business is operating. Here are the top 10 key performance indicators data-driven CEOs need to place on their watch list.

• Net Profit
• Progress Towards Targets
• Revenues and Revenue Growth Rate
• Expenses
• Revenue per Employee
• Employee Engagement
• Profit Per Customer
• Order Fulfilment
• Project Success
• Downtime

How Can Power BI Help?

Power BI is one of the leading BI solutions as of 2020, and it offers users a high degree of accessibility and flexibility when it comes to implementing BI without sacrificing any key features.

By using datasets that CEOs can either connect to or import, Power BI gives users all the data they need across functions and enables them to view detailed reports and display multiple sets of data as required. Users can set permissions for staff so that multiple individuals can explore, refresh, and reuse data. Moreover, users can publish reports and insert data into shareable documents.

Power BI is a powerful business intelligence solution that is mostly suitable for organizations that primarily work on premise. Besides accessibility and flexibility, the solution also helps maximise profitability, identify trends, anticipate various types of challenges, pick out business opportunities easier, and help data-driven CEOs make smarter decisions.

Where does agile come in?

It can be hard to move an organization from a waterfall methodology of project delivery to an agile project methodology. One way forward is to pick a report, and choose that specific report as a target for each sprint.

If the data is too complex, then it is possible just to set one specific metric as the sprint ‘goal’. The idea is that the sprint goal should be challenging enough to deliver business value, but also present a low enough barrier that the team should meet it with directed effort.

It is good to accompany agile with a dedicated training and mentoring effort, but it should also be noted that each sprint should be aimed at delivering real business value. This balance will require effort by the whole team. The aim is to deliver business value for each sprint, and each team member will need to be mindful of delivering value with each sprint.

Conclusion

Power BI can be used as a way to help change the culture within the organization, if it is carefully implemented. If the pieces are not in place, then the effort may not be successful. It is essential to have a key executive sponsor to look after the effort or it will not deliver value. In this case, it is not the technology itself that is the issue – it is the system, culture and people and this is a tougher component to change.

It is important to remember you can make small changes to the culture in a digital transformation exercise which aggregate over time, as long as the executive sponsor can help keep everyone’s feet on the accelerator and heading in the right direction.