[Study] Management Decisions: The Transformation to Data-Based Competitive Advantage

Executive Summary

Companies that rely more on data in decision-making processes have a competitive advantage over key competitors.

The transformation to data-driven decision-making processes is supported, demanded, and exemplified by top management.

In this study, we analyze the transformation of internal company decision-making processes from intuition and gut feeling to an objective, data-based foundation.
Specifically, we look at (1) the transformation trend in the company, (2) the influence of this transformation on corporate performance, (3) specific decision-making areas in marketing and sales that particularly benefit from this transformation, and (4) the obstacles that stand in the way of this transformation.
In collaboration with a renowned market research institute, more than 200 executives from German-speaking retail, wholesale and e-commerce were surveyed in September 2025 (DACH region).

The perceived advantages of data-driven decision-making are diverse:

In companies with strong data-driven decision-making (“Data Kings”), the management supports the introduction of data-driven decisions, and executives rate the quality of the decisions as better.
Management first, IT second: Obstacles on the way to data-driven decision-making lie in the empowerment of employees (35%) as well as in management: managers do not have the right skills (22%) or the management resists changes in decision-making (23%).

Executives in data-driven companies rate corporate performance as better compared to key competitors: (1) sales, (2) sales growth, (3) profit and (4) profitability/margin
The differences are statistically significant.
The performance gap compared to less data-oriented companies is increasing year-on-year.

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