Organisations are finding it hard to navigate a deluge of data about customers, employees, suppliers, stakeholders, partners and competitors. We identified the top 5 areas where better data quality and analysis would have the biggest impact.

1. How management accountants can
enable better business
decision making
with big data

2. Big data has
transformed
the way we do
business, but has
created a feeling
of never-ending
catch up with the
competition.

3. Nearly 9 in 10 organisations are
struggling to get value
from big data.
Source: CGMA Briefing: Big Data

4. Combined with external
threats - political instability,
technology changes, hyper-
competition, you see there’s
a huge opportunity for
management accountants
to bring validity to decision
making.

5. Organisations are finding it hard
to navigate a deluge of data
about customers, employees,
suppliers, stakeholders, partners
and competitors.

6. The US alone faces
a shortage of 1.5 million
data analysts and managers
to make decisions based
on big data.
Source: McKinsey Global - Big Data: The Next Frontier

7. How can organisations gain value
from big data and use it to make
informed decisions?

8. The management
accountant’s
role is changing.

9. Management accountants can take
a position of trust and objectivity,
reporting on the business facts.
But credible accounts and
management information
is not enough.

10. Big data provides
management
accountants with
3 huge opportunities:

11. To act as steward of the
business’ future, providing
insight into the holistic
data businesses are
drowning in, not just
financials
1

12. To build relationships across
the business, communicate
the facts clearly, and
proactively report on
non-financial data to
improve transparency and
accountability
2

13. To enable better
performance management
across the organisation by
providing new, and often
intangible measures
of outcomes
3

14. We surveyed over 2,000
finance professionals to
find out how they felt about
their role in big data.

15. Over 50%
of corporate leaders
rank big data and
analytics as a top 10
corporate priority.

16. 90% feel
that financial
professionals are key to
unlocking the benefits
of big data in their
organisation…

17. … but 86%
recognise their
organisations are
currently struggling to
unlock the value of
their data.

18. We identified the top five
areas where better data
quality and analysis would
have the biggest impact.

19. 1
Identifying opportunities
to increase efficiency or
reduce costs

20. 2
Developing and
monitoring KPIs

21. 3
Driver-based
forecasting

22. 4
Monitoring
external risks

23. 5
Increasing revenues
through better
customer segmentation

24. So how do MAs
get started on this
pathway to big data
success?

25. Polish your statistical skills:
learn about the range of data sources and
analytics available that can be used to make
sense of big data.
Learn something new:
sign up for a certification to ground you in
the basics of data.
Jargon-bust:
get comfortable with the terminology;
it’s essential in an environment full of
technical terms and subtleties.
Source: CGMA briefing: Big Data

26. Be sociable:
develop relationships to become a trusted
broker between business managers, IT
colleagues and data scientists.
Become strategically aware:
read widely on your sector to give you a broader
understanding of your business’ model and
management challenges.
Be curious:
identify bigger questions to help you
understand what data you need – the big data
might already be there.
Source: CGMA briefing: Big Data

27. Speak up:
establish yourself as a go-to person on
data analytics and help by teaching others
in your team
Visualising data:
assess what tools will help you translate and
present data in a way that’s compelling and
accessible
Network:
attend seminars and events to polish your skills
and learner from others’ examples
Source: CGMA briefing: Big Data

28. Find out more about Big Data and
how management accountants
can deliver more value to your
business with a range of CGMA
Big Data resources.
Click here to download
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