Ironically, uncertainty is the only certainty on the business horizon. This brings complexities and unplanned eventualities that demand organizations be agile, flexible, and internally disruptive. To achieve this, strategically purposeful data is key to shaping how the organization responds to these forces and supports its people, while teams themselves also experience the complexities of change in uncertain times.

Technology makes everything easier and more efficient. Having an ERP and a data analytics system like Power BI is increasingly relevant. But it is people who ultimately make a positive impact on an organization’s success, shaping its growth, performance, and connections, and redefining its potential for innovation.

For a company to maximize its potential—both human and technological—and extract full value from its data, it needs to focus on four key points: know your people, invest in skills, follow the money, and move toward the future. Together, these four pillars give a company the agility and flexibility it needs to pivot amid uncertainty.

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1. Know Your People

Disruption and change are common in the market, which likely means your workforce is changing as well. You might think you know your team’s talent and skills, but do you really have clear visibility of the skill sets that exist within your organization? Do you really know your people?

Advances in human capital data analytics can help organizations move past guesswork and truly understand their people. To thrive as a business, people, processes, and technology must be aligned and support the execution of the organization’s strategic objectives. This means knowing who your people are, what they need, and what they can contribute to the business, as well as where their skills are being—or not being—utilized.

Until recently, most organizational data focused on key metrics like finance, process efficiency, or sales. Now, data is being used to measure human experience and better understand human capital, enabling decisions that increase employee engagement and, in turn, boost customer satisfaction and loyalty.

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2. Invest in the Right Skills

Use data to understand people’s skills, deploy them in roles that empower them, and help them achieve their goals. Leverage technology to do this—but remember, when everyone has access to the same amazing technologies, it’s how and where you apply them that makes the difference.

Advanced technologies create a specific and unique skills challenge. For a long time, the focus has been almost exclusively on teaching technical skills, diverting investment away from the inherent human skills that give a company its competitive edge in the market. A renewed focus on leadership, empathy, critical thinking, and strategic planning skills will drive market success.

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3. Follow the Money

When your organization has experienced prolonged periods of profitability and growth, it’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that how you operate today is how you’ll always operate. Products that were once highly profitable can quickly become underperformers due to competitive pressures and supply chain challenges.

Consistently digging into your organizational and operational processes can help you see what’s working, where things are succeeding, and where they are not—early. Data allows you to keep one eye on the business and the other on potential ideas, services, and markets that may be profitable, along with trends and sources of overspending.

Data ensures you know which products and services are profitable, which are trending, and which are costing the company money.

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4. Move Toward the Future

The business you had yesterday may not be the business you have tomorrow. We have access to more data than ever before to assess emerging trends, identify cost changes within organizations, and spot anomalies in the market.

It all starts with data—how well you collect, analyze, and use it to inform decisions. But remember, the human element is critical to the success of this process: artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and technologies are only as good as the people who create, implement, and use them. You need to put your people at the forefront of data collection and analysis.