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August 7, 2013

Business Managers Need to Adapt or Die, Survey Says

Alex Woodie

As big data descends upon corporations around the world, mid-level managers must pick up the pace and improve their analytical skills to successfully adapt to the new data environment and the opportunities it’s creating, according to a recent survey by the American Management Association.

The AMA’s survey suggests that the distribution of analytical skills is stratified across the corporate hierarchy. That’s not necessarily the best way for a company to deal with the influx of massive amounts of data from internal as well as external sources, according to the study.

In the opinion poll, which was conducted for the AMA by the Institute for Corporate Productivity, nearly 800 people working in 50 industries across the globe were asked to assess the analytical skills of their employees by job level.

Executives (“leaders”) and “functional experts” were identified by survey participants as are most likely to have “expert” level analytical skills, according to the survey. By comparison, only 14 percent of managers were identified as having expert level analytical skills, followed by 8 percent of supervisors. A margin of error was not provided.

Robert Smith, a Senior Vice President with AMA, said that it’s not surprising that senior executives and functional experts are thought to have the most highly developed analytical skills. “But the broad midlevels of today’s organizations still have a way to go,” he said in a press announcement.

While managers are the least likely to demonstrate quant-level skills, managers were also more likely than any other job category to register at least some blip on the analytic skills radar. Less than 3 percent of managers were identified as having “nonexistent” analytic skills, compared to nearly 4 percent of executives and more than 7 percent of functional experts demonstrating no analytical skills. One out of 10 supervisors are thought to possess not an iota of analytical ability, according to this study.

The survey also looked at the different ways that companies are acquiring big data analytic skills. According to the AMA, more companies are training their existing staff in analytical thinking and methodologies, rather than focusing on hiring new employees who already possess the skills

That message resonated with the AMA, which sells corporate training courses to corporations around the world. “Organizations plan to invest in the talent they have and we see this as a sign that management clearly understands the importance of all levels of the workforce holding strong analytical skills,” Smith said.

The types of skills that will be in highest demand including the ability to analyze a variety of data sources, including third-party research, social media, and information about the behaviors of customers and prospects, Smith told Human Resources Executive online.com.  “The ability to analyze data is critically important, but so are the ‘softer’ skills of presenting and persuasively communicating the findings and insights to others,” he told the publication.

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