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[email protected] For immediate release: Asking better questions of data boosts performance, says Economist Intelligence Unit report An ability to ask better questions of data is central to driving better business outcomes, according to In search of insight and foresight: Getting more out of big data, an Economist Intelligence Unit report, sponsored by Oracle and Intel. According to a global EIU survey for this report, the vast majority of executives agree that asking better questions of data has already improved their organisation’s performance and will continue to lift it in the coming years. Nevertheless, many companies struggle to use data to gain insight into their business—and foresight into how best to move it forward. Lessons from successful firms reveal that achieving insight and foresight requires crafting savvy questions that test smart hypotheses, both of which are best fostered by open corporate cultures that prize data and its exploration. Other key findings include: • Focusing on a business outcome is crucial, yet a struggle for most companies. Defining, agreeing on and gearing data analyses towards clear, specific and relevant business objectives is difficult for many companies and a critical obstacle to translating data into insights, results and competitive advantage. Executives overwhelmingly consider predictions (70%) the most critical type of data insight for C-level decisions, followed by insights into trends (43%). • The main challenges are people-related.