Access to more data can help us make better decisions. However, just having more data may not get us where we need to be. We have to make sure everyone involved understands the data well enough to inform the decisions we make together. I call the process of getting everyone on the same page about financial data “democratizing data.” Andrew Kenney at Finance Management Magazine, published by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants – CIMA, interviewed me about democratizing data.
We talked about:
- The role of technology in the relationship between finance departments and other teams at a business
- How best to communicate about data and explain it clearly to business partners
- Preparing data for meetings with stakeholders
- Responsibly testing and using AI and advanced analytics
As a strategic finance consultant, it’s so important to me to bring financial data into decision-making conversations clearly and accessibly, even though we all have varied backgrounds and levels of data literacy. As the finance expert, it’s my job to interpret the financial data for everyone else. It’s their job to bring their expertise about their business focuses to the conversation, so we can build an understanding of the business’ financial situation and how we can improve it.
Kenney quotes me as saying:
“It’s the idea of really recognizing where they’re at and trying to bring them on,” Mazzone said. “If you don’t, you’re leaving them behind, and they’re not going to be able to make data-driven decisions.”
The article also includes some pertinent insights from finance leaders Shreya Shanbhag and Aramide Balogun about increasing partners’ understanding of data, setting accurate expectations, managing partners’ data access, creating interactive data dashboards, data security/privacy and more.
Read the full article here: How finance business partners can optimise ‘democratised’ data