Data Literacy: What It Is and Why It’s Important

At this point in history, the Information Age is still in its infancy. The very idea of work and what that means is being challenged and redefined. Work itself is transforming from an outcome or result into a process. As the evolution continues, having a good grasp of data will be vital for survival. Understanding data and turning it into something useful will not just be a “nice to have;” it will be a critical imperative. Without the skills and tools to understand it, data is useless.

The key to becoming data-centric is the idea of data literacy. Everyone across the organization should be able to construct a business case based on concrete numbers and should be able to interpret data. The cost of not understanding data is huge—according to Gartner, 73% of all company data goes unused. This is significant waste in terms of the cost of collecting, analyzing, and storing a commodity that remains untouched. Again, misused data is also a problem due primarily to a lack of understanding of how to put data to work. An Accenture study found that only 37% of respondents believed that their decisions improved by using data, and close to 50% said they opted to rely on their “gut instinct” more frequently than on data. This is at odds with the tenets of data literacy and with most companies’ preferred methodologies and practices. 

Creating an organization that is truly data literate is hard work. Every company claims to be a data company, yet very few have a culture that embraces and enables data literacy. Being data-centric is important to executive leaders in every industry. All companies want to make decisions rooted in facts, but according to a study by Accenture, 74% of employees feel overwhelmed when working with data. 

The bottom line

Data can drive innovation, create compelling content, and connect with customers and prospects. Customers in all industries need a quick, reliable solution that allows anyone in the organization to not merely access data but to literally and metaphorically visualize it so that they can use it to improve the business. When data is baked into all decision-making, everyone wins—increased profits, more creative thinking, better hiring, the list is endless. No company says, “Let’s not use this data. Let’s rely on intuition instead. That will lead us to solid decisions.”