The fundamental purpose of insights is to transform raw data into meaningful information that guides better business decisions. Insights should not be reduced to validating existing intuitions or manipulated to support a pre-determined direction—a trap many organizations fall into. Instead, insights have the potential to uncover core dynamics that shape behaviors, markets, and even entire industries. These insights can propel growth or, if ignored, lead to disruption.

However, despite their value, insights teams are often cornered within organizations, typically siloed under marketing or digital/data departments. This limits their scope and reduces their potential for impact across the entire business. In reality, insights professionals can apply a range of methodologies that extend far beyond consumer behavior analysis, including operations, supply chain, sustainability, human resources, mergers and acquisitions (M&A), and retail (Ipsos)

For this reason, the insights function should sit at the C-level, championing strategic initiatives for all departments, from marketing to HR and sustainability. Yet, one key challenge preventing insights from taking a central role is the difficulty in connecting their work to measurable business impact. In contrast, finance and digital/data functions are often given more power, as their contributions are more directly tied to quantifiable outcomes.

At the core of effective business strategy lies the ability to anticipate market shifts, understand consumer behavior, and make informed decisions. This is where the insight function becomes indispensable. By analyzing both qualitative and quantitative data, insights teams offer businesses a window into evolving trends and customer preferences, guiding them to make data-backed choices that reduce risks and drive growth.

Insights-driven strategies help businesses refine pricing models, optimize marketing efforts, and enter new markets with confidence.

Furthermore, for insights to truly transform an organization, they must not be confined to a single department. The insights function should be woven into the fabric of all business operations, ensuring that every team benefits from data-driven knowledge. Cross-functional collaboration allows insights to move beyond the marketing department and influence everything from supply chain decisions to talent acquisition strategies. When insights are limited to consumer data—which often happens due to the prevailing obsession with customer centricity—companies can become blindsided by other forces shaping the business. For example, the data privacy movement has largely been driven by governments as a security measure, even though consumers may not prioritize it.

Similarly, markets like virtual reality or cryptocurrencies are propelled by technological advances and industry initiatives. Placing insights production at the intersection of all PESTEL dimensions (political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal) is key to achieving a comprehensive, cross-functional understanding of what shapes a market.

When insights are shared widely and incorporated into daily decision-making, organizations can break down silos and empower all teams with actionable data. In this way, insights act as a bridge, connecting departments with the information they need to make informed, strategic decisions. However, as we mentioned earlier, one of the greatest challenges for the insights function is proving its return on investment (ROI) to company leadership. Unlike finance or digital teams, whose outcomes can be easily measured in terms of cost savings or revenue growth, the impact of insights is often less tangible. This creates hesitancy among executives to fully integrate insights into the company’s decision-making processes.

Demonstrating the value of insights requires clear communication with executives and a focus on linking insights directly to business outcomes. Regularly presenting findings to leadership teams and showing how these insights have influenced key decisions can help build trust and credibility. However, there is a significant challenge around attribution: since insights are typically developed early in the decision-making process, tracing the success of an initiative back to its original insight can be tricky. Only rigorous tracking and alignment from intelligence to execution can enable insights teams to measure their impact and, in turn, receive credit for their contributions. Organizations that successfully demonstrate this impact often secure more resources and executive buy-in, allowing them to expand their influence across the business.

As businesses strive to fully leverage the power of insights, they typically move through four stages of Customer Insights (CI) maturity, which reflect their growing ability to generate and utilize insights effectively.

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At this initial stage, the insights team operates in a reactive mode, handling specific requests from business units like marketing or product development. Their role is largely tactical, focused on addressing immediate business needs rather than long-term strategy.

• Characteristics: The team produces reports and data analyses for isolated projects, with limited influence on overall strategy.
• Impact: Insights are used sporadically and have minimal effect on major business decisions.

As the company progresses, insights teams become more proactive, anticipating business needs instead of just responding to requests. They collaborate more frequently with departments like sales, finance, and operations.

• Characteristics: Insights are more widely shared across teams, with dashboards and visualizations making data more accessible.
• Impact: Insights start influencing broader business decisions, but the function may still operate in silos.

At this stage, insights are deeply embedded into the company’s strategic planning. The team provides continuous, real-time input that informs key decisions, including pricing, market entry, and product development.

• Characteristics: Insights professionals are seen as strategic partners, frequently working with leadership to guide business decisions. They use advanced methodologies like predictive analytics to generate deeper insights.
• Impact: Insights drive significant portions of strategic decision-making, directly influencing business outcomes.

Successfully integrating insights into the heart of an organization demands a multi-faceted approach. Businesses must address several key pillars to ensure the insights function drives strategic decision-making effectively.

Organizations need insights professionals who are not just proficient in data analysis but also excel at communicating complex findings to senior leadership. Regularly upskilling your team on new methodologies and technologies—such as advanced analytics tools, AI, and machine learning—ensures that they remain ahead of industry trends and provide cutting-edge recommendations.

Ensuring insights are factored into top-level decision-making requires full commitment from C-suite executives. By involving the insights team in strategic discussions from the start, businesses can align all departments, whether marketing, operations, or HR, under a unified, data-driven approach.

In a rapidly changing landscape, rigid processes can stall progress. Companies must continuously adapt their internal workflows to a faster pace of decision-making, clarifying ownership at every step to prevent bottlenecks. This flexibility ensures insights are integrated without delays.

Building a robust tech stack is crucial. Before deciding to create custom tools in-house or purchase external solutions, evaluate whether the tech is core to your business. Can you attract and retain the talent required to develop and maintain these solutions? Prioritize technology that enhances collaboration and democratizes data access across departments.

With insights, data sources and biases must be thoroughly vetted. Establishing clear methodologies ensures that the insights generated are trustworthy, which is essential for driving long-term adoption across the organization.

Clean, well-organized data is foundational for any insights function. Invest in tools and practices that streamline data cleaning and ensure it is easily accessible to the entire team. Data should be treated as a strategic asset, one that empowers every level of the organization to make informed decisions.

To measure success, clear and measurable KPIs should be defined at the outset. These metrics need to be easily understood by both the insights team and other departments, ensuring alignment across the board. Additionally, assigning business sponsors for each initiative guarantees that insights are tied to specific business outcomes.

Adoption hinges on trust. Internal onboarding and education programs should be prioritized to familiarize teams with the insights function’s capabilities. Branding the insights function internally can help generate excitement and ensure long-term engagement with the platform.

Insights often provide long-term strategic value, but balancing short-term wins with sustained growth objectives is key. Organizations must be patient and set realistic expectations, as transforming an organization through insights takes time, yet the results can be enduring.

Transforming an organization through data-driven insights is a gradual process. Patience is critical as both cultural shifts and technological adoption take time to bear fruit. Leaders must continuously champion the value of insights, reinforcing the long-term vision.

By focusing on these pillars, organizations can ensure that the insights function is positioned as a strategic driver of growth, aligning data-driven decision-making with business objectives across the board.

In an age where data is ubiquitous, the ability to extract valuable insights from this information is what sets leading companies apart. By embedding the insight function into the heart of their strategy, organizations can ensure that they are making informed, data-backed decisions that drive sustainable growth. To achieve this, businesses must prioritize cross-departmental collaboration, invest in the right technology, and demonstrate the tangible value of insights at every level of the organization.

The insights function is not just a support system for marketing or data teams; it is the driving force behind informed, strategic decision-making across the entire company. Now more than ever, businesses need to empower their insights teams to lead the way toward a more data-driven future.