B EYE‘s founder, Dimitar Dekov, was a keynote speaker at “CFO Forum 2019“, organized by Ernst & Young.
With a long-standing history of five successful editions in the past, the CFO Forum is one of the most influential events in the financial sector for 2019. It provides both CFOs and future finance leaders with insights and guidance on the latest trends and advancements in the financial sector.
This year the CFO Forum was under the motto “Transforming Finance”. In the spirit of the event in his lecture, Mr. Dekov discussed how data-driven decisions could be the leading force for business transformation. He explained that to stay successful nowadays, companies need to trust their data when it comes to decisions over their gut feeling. “If we looked at the top 10 biggest companies today compared to the ones ten years ago, we are going to find huge differences.”, he said. ”To stay competitive nowadays, you need to be able to predict the changes and make decisions efficiently and data is the main key to do that.” In his speech, he also addressed the significance of Data Literacy, the ability to read, work with, analyze, and argue with data. According to research, only 24% of the main decision-makers are truly data-literate.
What is more, only 17% of the organizations encourage their employees to improve their data literacy. “If this trend continues, the gap between the successful companies and everyone else will only widen,” he added. “Furthermore, companies should aim towards data democratization (the ability for information in a digital format to be accessible to the average end-user), in order to unleash the true potential of their employees.”
Additionally, he shared that achieving a data-driven culture requires focus, efforts and investments. The organizations need to put first strong analytics-fundaments before they could enjoy the benefits of advanced analytics. However, this does not mean waiting to build the perfect data warehouse or believing that one single system can be used for everything. Although there is often resistance to change, the traditional practices are just not enough anymore. Therefore, CFOs among the other main decision-makers must be the guides that will lead the company towards data liberation.
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Ernst & Young is a multinational professional services firm headquartered in London, UK. It is one of the largest professional services firms in the world, specializing in security, tax, transaction and advisory services.
