Lori Hiltz, CEO of Havas Media North America and ARF Board Member, offered six guiding principles to navigate the changing environment:
1) ‘The best vision is insight.’ – Malcolm Forbes. Insights are our best work product. Data points are the building blocks by which insights are created.
2) ‘Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.’ – Albert Einstein. It’s important to decide what data to use to produce insights that will drive measurable business results. Chasing the wrong metrics creates empty victories.
3) ‘I notice increasing reluctance on the part of marketing executives to use judgment; they are coming to rely too much on research, and they use it as a drunkard uses a lamp post for support, rather than for illumination.’ – David Ogilvy. Guts vs. information: Do you use data to ratify a hypothesis or create it? There has to be some intuition still built into the research.
4) ‘The value of an idea lies in the using of it.’ – Thomas Edison. Ideas in action: Move past the superficial act of reporting data to the critical analysis that informs ideas and creates shareholder value.
5) Create an agile data system. Apply the principles of agile development to produce insights with speed or, better yet, in real time.
6) ‘Action is the foundational key to all success’ – Pablo Picasso.
‘Experts often possess more data than judgment.’ – Colin Powell
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