Craving value: How fast-food brands can win in APAC's diverse market
Want to conquer APAC's diverse fast-food scene? Discover the nuances you need to master to win over consumers.
Companies today face a deluge of information. But the real challenge isn’t gathering this information – it is making sense of it all. It’s about turning information into knowledge, and knowledge into action.
While many strive to be ‘data-driven’, this approach can be a trap. Without context or critical thinking, simply following the data can lead to poor decisions. Instead, companies need to be data-informed, using information strategically to guide human judgment and fuel impactful actions.
This is crucial because the gap between data and decisions is widening. Companies know they need to act, but the sheer volume of information can be paralyzing. Different sources tell different stories, which creates contradictions that hinder effective decision-making.
Your revenue management team might see a clear need for a price increase, while your innovation team may be pushing for a bold new product launch, and your brand communications team might fear a loss of market share.
So how can leaders bridge this gap and turn information into a competitive advantage?
It starts with understanding the challenges and committing to a holistic, action-oriented approach. To guide this journey, we’ve identified three essential principles for navigating the information deluge:
By embracing these principles, businesses can move towards what we call “AHA” decision-making: Accurate, Holistic, and Agile. This means ensuring your data and analysis are accurate and reliable, while also considering all relevant perspectives and information sources. Crucially, it requires the ability to adapt quickly to new insights and changing market conditions.
This approach aligns with Wharton’s professors Bart de Langhe and Stefano Puntoni, who challenge the notion that businesses should be purely data-driven, where decisions are dictated solely by the numbers. Instead, they advocate for a more balanced approach where data informs and guides human judgment, allowing for flexibility and intuition in the decision-making process.
In today’s rapidly changing market, this agility is crucial. Businesses need to be able to adapt quickly to new information, emerging trends, and unexpected disruptions. By fostering a culture of data-informed decision-making, businesses can navigate uncertainty with greater confidence and position themselves for success.
A powerful example of this approach is a project with a plant-based nutrition company looking to enter a new market segment. The information existed in disparate sources, making it difficult to form a complete picture. To help them, we employed a “wargaming” approach. This involved gathering all relevant stakeholders and creating a simulated market environment. We presented them with various scenarios, challenging them to make strategic decisions based on the available information.
This exercise fostered a shared understanding of the market and its potential challenges and opportunities, while also helping the company make sense of the vast information available. By working through scenarios collaboratively, they developed a robust go-to-market strategy.
Beyond such structured exercises, technology is also playing an increasingly important role in helping businesses make sense of their data. AI is transforming how businesses collect, analyze, and interpret information. While some fear AI will replace human judgment, we believe it’s a tool that can enhance decision-making.
AI can sift through vast quantities of data, identifying patterns and generating insights but the future of effective decision-making lies in a partnership between human intelligence and AI.
For business leaders looking to turn information into action, we offer these takeaways:
In today’s fast-paced world, information can unlock a competitive advantage. At SKIM, we help companies to mine this information more effectively, providing greater certainty to elevate their pricing, brand communication and innovation strategies.
If you’d like to explore how data-informed decision-making can transform your brand, we invite you to reach out for a conversation.