In an insightful report, "Who Killed Nokia? Nokia did" from Insead, it is stated that fearing the reactions of top managers, middle managers remained silent or provided optimistic, filtered information.
According to a middle manager “the information did not flow upwards. Top management was directly lied to… I remember examples when you had a chart and the supervisor told you to move the data points to the right [to give a better impression]. Then your supervisor went to present it to the higher-level executives."
There were situations where everybody knew things were going wrong, but we were thinking, “Why tell top managers about this? It won’t make things any better.”
Such an approach is commonly known as "Watermelon Reporting."
What is Watermelon Reporting?
A watermelon is green on the outside, red on the inside. "Watermelon reporting" describes the phenomenon where things appear to be green on the outside, but if you dig a little deeper and look inside, it's actually red right through (i.e. Houston, we have a problem). This phenomenon can be surprisingly common in organizations, where people might not have the courage to pass on the bad news to the management.
How can you ensure that you get access to unfiltered information?
The answer is simple. If you are a business leader in the top management of a company, the best way to prevent Watermelon Reporting is to ensure you have full access to insights. And preferably, simply by asking.
CHAT WITH YOUR DATA™ empowers you to become a data analyst yourself - without any technical skills. You can simply ask your data questions and receive visualised insights instantly! You don't have to wait for access to insights anymore. You can truly become data-driven, not to mention significantly reduce the Total Cost of Ownership of your Data & Analytics/BI. All the steps following the data pipeline and data warehouse, such as the creation of the Reporting Layer or Data Marts, Report Development, and Dashboard Development, will become more or less redundant.
The era of Watermelon Reporting has ended. The future of Self-Service Analytics is here. Contact us today and book a free demo to witness the power of CHAT WITH YOUR DATA™ in action. Say goodbye to Watermelon Reporting – start chatting with your data!
