"You see things and you say “why”.

But I dream things that never were; and I say, “why not”?"

George Bernard Shaw

A decade back, when ‘analytics’ was more an esoteric buzzword than an organizational necessity, leaders of fledging analytics divisions focused one key goal - ‘growth’

Today, with increasing acceptance of analytics across sectors and the explosive expected growth in Analytics software and services, the same leaders have a new goal – how to drive value and impact while maximizing efficiency.

As the CXO crowns and goals keep shifting and companies keep looking for Analytics to drive differentiation, the need for Analytics leadership is also changing.

Thomas Davenport defined the stages of analytics journey as follows:

With the changing business needs, analytics leadership needs to be in synch with the stage of analytics growth. Analytics leaders need to shift from purely a growth mindset to a thought leadership mindset as shown in the graph below.

Are many analytics leaders stuck in stages 1 and 2 of leadership while the companies are trying to move towards being Analytical competitors?

Point to ponder. Do we need more leaders now to say ‘why not’ and less to question ‘why’?