Developing Human Skills for Well-Functioning Business Analytics Capability

Abstract

The ability to support both strategic and operational management with data-informed insight can generate significant benefits for organizations. Industries continue to become increasingly data-driven, and organizations continue to develop their business analytics capability to seize the value potential embedded in data. Consequently, organizations are investing in data and technology resources and, to leverage these investments, also in human and intangible resources, such as technical skills, managerial skills, and data-driven culture. While the integral role of human skills in an organization’s business analytics capability is widely acknowledged within the extant research literature, there is much less discussion and evidence on how organizations develop these skills. However, such investigation would help provide organizations with new perspectives on maximizing the business value of their business analytics capability investments. Using 36 semi-structured interviews, this study explores what kind of measures organizations apply to develop the skills of their analytics professionals. Building on the extant business analytics capability literature and the resource-based view of the firm, this study contributes by deepening the current understanding of the development of human skills in building a well-functioning business analytics capability. Our findings show that, besides technical and managerial skills, organizations should also proactively develop the collaboration skills of their analytics professionals. The practical examples of skills development measures described in this study, such as job rotation, mentoring and role overlaps, provide new ideas for analytics professionals and decision-makers to enhance their business analytics capability development.