Delegation of decision making

The final factor that I see on a daily basis in the project selection process for analytics projects is the delegation of decisions down to lower levels of the organization; executive management delegates the decision-making authority for analytics projects to the senior managers, who in turn delegate to the functional managers, who, in the majority of cases, default to what the head of analytics wants to do, or recommends, to the functional managers.

In one of my previous roles, I spoke with a senior vice president about how to prioritize the company's investment in analytical applications. I suggested that we organize a cross-functional group of executives and senior managers to review the lists of projects and assist in making fair and equitable decisions regarding where the analytics team would focus their efforts. The person thought about it for a couple weeks and when I came back to revisit the discussion, the suggestion was to delegate...