Big Decisions: Executives Rely More on Experience and Advice Than Data to Make Business-Defining Choices

Source: PwC Global press room ; Published: Wednesday 10 September 2014

• Highly data-driven companies are three times more likely to report significant improvement in making big decisions, but only 1 in 3 executives say their organisation is highly data-driven.
• More big decisions are made opportunistically than deliberately, and big decisions have big impact on future profitability; nearly 1 in 3 executives value those decisions at $1 billion+
• Many executives sceptical or frustrated by the practical application of data and analytics for big decisions, especially in emerging markets

The great majority of executives around the world – 94% – say management of their company is prepared to make significant decisions about the strategic direction of their business, but barely one-third relied primarily on data and analytics when they made their last big decision. Executives’ intuition or experience and the advice and experience of others in their organisation were the decision making modes of choice for 58% of executives. However, of the executives from highly data-driven companies, 43% report significant improvements in decision making over the last two years. All executives said top priority over the next two years is to make investments in the quality of data analysis to make better decisions.

According to Gut & gigabytes: Capitalising on the art & science in decision making, a new survey report by the Economist Intelligence Unit sponsored by PwC, executives make big decisions frequently and review them often. More than three-fourths of executives make a big decision each quarter and 43% review them every month.

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