With almost 36 percent of chief executive officers and management making at least one make or break business decision every single month, it comes as no surprise that unreliable data used by firms in Botswana is the leading cause of failure of most firms.
A live survey which was conducted by Bandlive in Botswana shows that almost, “38 percent of businesses in Botswana will not achieve their set business targets as a result of unreliable bad data”. The report goes further to say that almost 32 percent of companies no longer have confidence in the data they use to make critical decisions.
With regards as to which department must be responsible for data collection in companies, the report states that improper delegation of duties is the likely cause of why most firms end up with poor data. “There is confusion mainly between the information technology department and the operations department” adding that “unreliable data affects company brands, productivity and the reputation of organisations.”
In order to resolve these problems, the report recommends that “firms should properly train their staff on data management and collection. Unfinished or undependable data has bottom-line consequences, and all departmental teams should work together in order to come up with accurate and trustworthy data.”
Sadly the report also notes that not many people know where the data they use comes from or who collected it. In explaining why and how data goes bad, the report says it is important to understand that data has an expiry data and goes out of date. It also says human mistakes and disconnected management systems cause data to go bad.
In a report released in late 2017 and exclusively reported by Sunday Standard, Provisional Liquidator, Nigel Dixon Warren discovered that the cabinet ministers who were appointed by former president Dr. Ian Khama to discuss the future of BCL mine made decisions based on wrong information. Furthermore the report said the figures presented to the cabinet ministers (assets and liabilities) were not a true reflection of the company’s financial position. This is just one, amongst many examples which prove how poor quality data has taken a toll on firms in Botswana.
