From chaos to clarity: Using research to make winning business decisions

By Barb VanSomeren

In talking with several colleagues, and in our own marketing and commercial leadership roles, we’ve noticed a consistent barrier to growth for both large and small startups. It all centers on decision making. Does this sound familiar? A well-intentioned leader is working diligently to answer critical questions and align stakeholder opinions to steer the company toward growth. But because of a lack of consensus and actionable data, their vision stalls and they fail to land on a direction or decision.

Data sets don’t make decisions. People do.

While many companies claim to be data driven, if you dig way back to the origin of major business decisions, most are the product of everything but data. Often, the biggest influence on corporate decisions is people — such as the CEO’s personal experience, a technical leader’s argument, or the highly persuasive pitch from the head of sales. And while stakeholder intentions are well-meaning, their input is only one piece of a bigger picture.

Even when oodles of data are available, sometimes the team can’t make a commercial connection. Which leaves decision makers drowning in a jumble of charts and graphs as they work to find the nugget of truth that can lead them to the holy grail of commercialization – a competitive advantage.

The importance of fact-based input

More often than not, it takes a great deal of rigor to uncover the implications needed for a winning business decision. That’s why working with Heath Mavens can benefit business leaders on a mission for growth, because cutting through clutter with fact-based input is our sweet spot.

We are Solutioners™ who come at business challenges from all sides, armed with as much information as possible. Which means, one of the first steps in creating a growth plan is research. It can be in the form of online focus groups, customer surveys, report summaries, interviews with analysts and other key stakeholders, and more. Regardless of the methodology, the goal of our Solutioner™ Research is to provide crisp, actionable insights that lead to clear executive-level direction, served up in either deep detail or as the headline needed to move the company forward.

Here are examples of how our research uncovered rich insights that led to successful business decisions, and ultimately, business growth.

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