An analytically competitive organization is one that uses analytics extensively and systematically to out-think and out-execute competitors. According to a new book, Competing on Analytics: The New Science of Winning, the most analytically sophisticated and successful had four common characteristics:

• analytics supported a strategic, distinctive capability
• the approach to and management of analytics was enterprise-wide
• senior management was committed to the use of analytics
• the company made a significant strategic bet on analytics-based competition.

The use of analytics will grow in the corporate world, both internally and offered to external customers as a value-added service. The content of analytics also will change from mostly quantitative analysis of tangible entities to analysis and management of intangibles such as human capital, intellectual capital, brand, R&D capability, and other non-financial assets.

For more about the importance of strategic analytics:
- read the article at CIO Insight

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