Accelerating while looking in the rear-view mirror

Stephen Few wrote a good blog post about what I consider a part of the business intelligence (BI) hypocrisy, ending with this:

Rather than trying to innovate in the realm of analytics without the required expertise, it’s time for BI companies, consultants, and thought leaders to first learn the basics of data sensemaking and communication—analytics—and only afterwards to try their hands at creating something new.

We’re talking about people who choose to ignore important data influences, new developments and new knowledge because it doesn’t fit their pre-defined Excel spreadsheets. Good luck with that! And it’s not just the companies and consultants. Their customers as well. The first time you experience the BI market, you think you’re in a strange Orwell-inspired world with everyone brain-washed.

If the business intelligence (BI) industry is now choosing to swap its primitive, dysfunctional charts for the artistic approach of McCandless, we’ll be in for several more years of BI failure.

This is where the title comes from. For years, BI made bigger, shinier rear-view mirrors with more and more features to look back even harder and convincing customers that they can go faster forward by looking back harder. It was easy because their primary customers, financial controlling, share the same ideology. We’re at a point in most companies, where the rear-view mirror takes up the entire front window. As soon as someone sticks their head out of the window to see beyond the BI dashboard, they get thrown out of the vehicle.