You know that meeting before THE meeting? The one where everyone comes to get prepared for the actual meeting?
Here's how it usually goes...
"So, what are you guys all showing for EBITDA in Q4?"
Division A (the 80-year legacy business):
"SAP says $18M, but we're still massaging the Q4 overhead."
Division B (the tech startup acquired last year):
"Salesforce says $7.5M, but we've got some revenue timing issues."
Division C (the original digital business):
"Oracle’s at $12M, but we might be double-dipping on some shared services with Division A..."
Three divisions. Three different systems. Three sets of unique EBITDA numbers where each division head does a fair amount of "massaging the numbers" to get things just right.
Your team spends entirely too much time working on this process, each quarter, you can cut the tension in the air, and there's a fair amount of infighting that's done as each division jockeys for position as they present their best version of themselves.
In the back of your mind, you might be wondering:
The real cost? While your team's neck-deep in reconciling spreadsheets and creating one-off reports, key business decisions are on pause. Execs don't trust each other's numbers, and you're sweating bullets every quarter on the same stuff.
Sound familiar? Yeah, you're not alone. Companies are drowning in data but starving for actionable insights.
Over the next few weeks, we'll expose four myths about data projects that trap companies in this rut – and reveal how some are breaking free. With 87% of data and analytics projects ending in failure, the stakes couldn't be higher: Transform your company and lead with purpose – or risk becoming one of the organizations that squander hundreds of thousands of dollars.
