From Dashboards to Decisions: What Business Analytics Should Actually Solve
Analytics creates value when it improves a decision, not simply when it produces another dashboard.
Lessons from forecasting network capacity and building talent analytics in Oracle OTBI and Power BI.
The insight in ten cards
A dashboard is not a decision. At best, it is an invitation to make one.
More dashboards
- More metrics
- More reports
- More visibility
Better decisions
- Fewer, sharper questions
- Clear decision owners
- Agreed action thresholds
of respondents said their organisations regularly use AI in at least one business function — but only around one-third reported scaling it across the enterprise.
Source: McKinsey & Company, The State of AI (2025) (opens in a new tab)Forecasting 4G capacity taught me that a model only matters when someone acts on it — before the network congests, not after.
The gap is rarely analytical skill. It is the distance between the insight and the person who owns the decision.
Design analytics backwards
- 01Start with the decision
Which choice should this change?
- 02Set the threshold
What number triggers action?
- 03Name the owner
Who acts when it moves?
- 04Close the loop
Did the action work?
higher growth in revenue per employee in AI-exposed industries — around 27%, versus 9% in less-exposed industries.
Source: PwC, Global AI Jobs Barometer (2025) (opens in a new tab)Which of your dashboards would anyone notice if it disappeared tomorrow?
Value grows as analytics moves closer to the decision.
Good analytics doesn’t end with a chart. It ends with a better choice.
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