Effective Data Management: Optimizing Business Decisions

Data Management for Business Success

Effective data management is crucial. Company information, when properly configured and organized, becomes a valuable asset. Haphazardly piled data is unusable when needed. Data helps a company and must be stored and organized for easy and accurate retrieval.

Types of Business Information

The information a company may require can be categorized as:

• Internal: The quality of internal information depends on the business organization's ability to capture, process, and store it.
• External: External information is generated outside the company and affects it. Access to such data is essential for identifying opportunities and staying ahead of the competition.

Not all data is significant at all levels of an organization. Depending on the scale, we can differentiate between:

• Operational Information: Directly needed by departments to perform their daily work correctly.
• Tactical Information: Necessary to monitor the success of activities and objectives.
• Strategic Information: Used to analyze the company's overall economic performance and opportunities, and serves top management in making decisions and future planning.

Characteristics of an Information System

A good information system is flexible, allowing each module of the company to use the information it needs and enter the data it generates. Similar processes are used in data entry and retrieval at all levels of the company, facilitating information retrieval and storage.

Management by Objectives (MBO)

Management by Objectives (MBO) is a business management system involving setting targets for each department or area. Results are known and can be achieved depending on the degree of compliance.

The main advantage of MBO is that it classifies the organization, so each worker knows their work and goals. As for disadvantages, the main problem is that it can lead to bureaucratization in the performance of workers' functions.

Decision-Making

Leadership styles may differ when considering who and how to make decisions in the company. We can distinguish between:

• Authoritarian Management Style: Centralized decision-making where all decisions must pass through direction. This allows greater control but can delay decision-making.
• Democratic and Decentralized Management Style: Delegates part of its tasks to various lower levels. This speeds up decision-making but provides less strict control.