You are just about to walk into the board room and present the paper you’ve been working on for the past 2 months. 

What's running through your head?  You skim over your proposal, review the potential push backs, run through your prepared responses, take a few deep breaths and do one final check in the mirror before you walk through that door.

You know the paper is rock solid but your delivery is crucial.  You've only got one chance to impress and you’re relying on your delivery for that. 

So how can you convince your board in three seconds?

Let's face it, the default graphs in Excel are far from sexy.  Even if you know that, creating a cohesive dashboard, or engaging report, requires a lot of effort.

Possessing designs skills is a major benefit here but many of us struggle with this.

If you are the curator and you really want to get your message across you have to grab peoples' attention.

We are taught this all through school yet so few follow the rules and so few do it well.

How many Book1.xls do you have?

Like almost every firm out there you've probably got a whole bunch of these files on your server.

The IT department hate it.  But to me, these files indicate something important.

These files are an indication that some staff are engaging in exploratory analysis. An analytical playground, if you like.

I see them as an indication that the piece of information they are looking for is missing something or not in the right format.

Very few companies are leveraging data.

The headlines scream otherwise as we are told that every company has big data and is using it to conquer the world.

But this is simply not true.

What is true is that most companies are very interested in Big Data and Data Analytics.  The oft spoken about bounty found at the end of the Big Data rainbow is a tantalising lure and one that most CEO's have not ignored.

But the truth is that most organisations are busy thinking about it, but doing very little about it.  Aside from the Fintech industry there are a some like Channel 9, Altus Group and Advisian who have made the leap.

Yet many are still dipping their toe in the deep end, wondering whether or not to jump in.

In actual fact, they are wondering how on earth they should get started.

Big data is the panacea to all our problems… or so we are told. All over the world, we’re seeing organisations catapulting to exciting new levels by leveraging their data in ingenious ways.

However, plenty of companies are still just kicking tyres, wondering what on earth to do with their data, and how to make it happen. 

Worse still, many other firms have tried to ‘do’ big data… and failed.

It’s true that data scientists can uncover some unremarkable insights. With the right data, and some really cool mathematics, they can run an array of analytical techniques and produce findings that the human eye would never be able to identify; even with Excel 2016.

However, even the most exciting of insights can be worthless unless they’re paired with an essential ingredient: context.

Spurious correlations, statistical hurdles and mathematical hiccups

There's a risk with Big Data:  Encouraging everyone to use the tools to explore the company’s big data lake will lead people to do so.

It's what you want right?

But the risk is that people may find some significant, industry changing insight that will not only catapult the business to the pinnacle of their industry, but will give them the chance to make the name for themselves; one they so readily deserve. 

Spoiler Alert:  Every data scientists will agree that finding truly valuable and realistic insights is never easy.  Actually, it can be very hard.

After all, while the numbers never lie they can be misleading.

Imagine your car didn’t have a dashboard. 

• No rev counter
• No speedometer
• No fuel gauge

In its place, a weekly report that lands on your kitchen bench telling you how much fuel you used, how fast you went, what your average speed was last week. (Cars didn’t always have speedos)

Data analytics is a common term these days, yet most organisations still rely most heavily on standard business reporting. 

Even before currency was commonplace, business owners kept ledgers. The first recorded balance sheet was one created by an Italian Monk, Luca Pacioli, sometime during the late 1400s, and around the same time, an inspirational character called Benedetto Cotrugli wrote a text outlining the benefits of having a double-entry system for book-keeping. (Click here for a history lesson)

While the methods with which we produce reports has changed dramatically, the principle and focus remains. Quills and parchment may have been replaced by pixels and PDFs, but balance sheets still balance.

There’s been quite a bit of press recently about the Trump administration’s decision to withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement, and rightly so. The Paris Accord represented an end to the long-running battle to obtain a consensus commitment from countries across the globe to fight climate change; it is the world's first comprehensive climate agreement. So to have the world’s second biggest polluter withdraw from that agreement is a big deal.

Or is it?

The big data train is leaving the station and everyone is scrambling to get on board. We’re told big data will shape the future of business and as a result, companies large and small, across a range of industries are talking data, desperate for any competitive advantage. And if we’re being honest, we’re OK with that because we love data. But we have a dirty little secret to share. Big data is irrelevant

…but don’t tell anyone…