Let’s face it; most people did not think it was possible six months ago that Barack Obama would be the next President of the USA. It does not matter what your political affiliation, the execution of his campaign can only be described as pure brilliance.
The core of his campaign was based around his web site my.barackobama.com which took all the best features of web site functionality to create custom pages for each subscriber, calls to action with automated generated emails, links to local activities and gauges to measure your own activities. In addition, it had this really neat system for subscribers to make personal calls to registered voters in key battleground States that served up names, phone numbers and simple scripts to do some very effective canvassing.
His message for “Change” was pretty potent too and there is no doubt, that despite the global financial recession, there is a positive momentum being carried forward in to 2009.
As many businesses and institutions face both major financial and survival issues in the coming months, there is a lot we can learn from what I am calling the “Obama Effect.” Optimism and positive attitude are important but without an effective strategy, they may not be enough. It does not matter whether you plan to reduce costs, increase income or both, the actions must be strategic and based on factual data. Business Intelligence tools and solutions have never been more important.
It does not matter if you are an airline trying to determine which routes are the least profitable, or will have the least impact if you should cancel them, or a retail outlet determining which product lines are consistently the most reliable as well as profitable, business intelligence is the key to making these strategic decisions. Not only can business intelligence provide the answers, but with visualization through animated dashboards, it can serve up the information in an exciting and engaging way that can motivate both your employees and your customers in the same way the my.barackobama web site did.
I truly believe that 2009 will be a year of change for many companies and people, and by harnessing the power of business intelligence and employing the “Obama Effect,” you can make that a very positive change.