The study, "Fostering a data-driven culture," shows that 82 percent of the German executives surveyed believe that employees in the company should be able to use and understand data to do their jobs.
The survey, conducted by Economist Intelligence Unit and commissioned by Tableau Software, also finds a clear correlation between financial performance and extensive data use by employees across countries.
In particular, companies that see themselves ahead of other, similarly positioned companies in the use of data also rate themselves three times higher on average in the area of financial performance compared to these companies.
The survey results show that data needs vary by industry and company - but the strategies for full data exploitation used by industries and companies do not differ.
According to the survey results, the most successful companies are those that maximize data use by providing required training and encouraging data use across departments and employees.
The survey also provides guidance for executives who want to create a data-driven corporate culture. One example of this is establishing data collection as a central focus within the company.
Internationally, the importance of data collection for data culture is rated as "very important/important" by 76 percent of executives from the highest-performing companies; by comparison, this opinion is shared by only 41 percent of companies that lag behind similarly positioned companies in data use.
"Leading companies recognize that employees who are empowered to use data can contribute significantly to business success"
said Ralf Patzwaldt, Sales Manager DACH at Tableau Software.
"Making data available and usable for all employees can change the culture of an organization and, in particular, foster collaboration within and between departments.
The bottom line is that this has a positive impact for the company. The German executives surveyed also recognize this and believe that the majority of their employees should understand and use data."
Further results of the study
- Different definition of Big Data
Companies define the size of Big Data differently. Thirty-six percent of respondents define data volumes of more than one terabyte as big data, and 15 percent even define data volumes of more than one gigabyte as big data.
- Usage compared to other companies
Data that is not well structured or consistent was cited by 66 percent of respondents as a reason their company lags behind similar companies in Big Data usage. Fifty percent think it's because they don't have enough people to analyze the data.
- Work in a data-centric way to make informed decisions
Respondents were asked to rate the importance of data in various organizational units, and 58 percent answered that data was "extremely important" and "very important" in making strategic decisions.
- Influence of the data on the job
When asked what impact data has on their job, 57 percent of respondents said data has increased the importance of their role. When asked about the impact of data on their employees, respondents still saw a need, with 65 percent needing to train their employees to better use company data.
- The shortage of skilled workers
Data Scientists will continue to be an essential part of many workforces, but in a competitive job market, the problem is particularly in recruiting and retaining these specialists.
43 percent of respondents in Germany say that finding qualified employees is their biggest challenge. In addition, 35 percent are convinced that there is a shortage of qualified data analysts in their business segment, and 34 percent cite high salaries as a problem for recruitment.
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