by Grant Broadbent, Managing Director Stellar Consulting Group
The Seven Essentials : Why Performance Insight Turns Data Into Measurable Value
When it comes to delivering successful data programmes, great strategy and strong governance aren’t enough on their own. You also need something more human, more practical, and often more difficult to get right: engagement.
When it comes to driving business transformation through data, insight without impact is a missed opportunity. Stellar’s Performance Insight – the fourth pillar in our Seven Essentials Framework – is all about connecting analytics to outcomes, and data to decisions that move the needle.
At its heart, Performance Insight is about creating a performance management culture that aligns analytics activity directly with enterprise goals. It ensures every KPI has a purpose, every dashboard tells a story that matters, and every investment in data delivers a measurable return.
As Co-Founder and Managing Director, Grant Broadbent explains, this is where many organisations lose their way:
“We still see too many data initiatives that run for years without clear payback or accountability for ROI. Data teams are working hard, but they’re not always working on the right things.”
Below are three key insights we’ve learned from helping New Zealand organisations unlock value through Performance Insight.
- Align Data With Enterprise Strategy
Performance Insight is the bridge between the executive team’s strategic plan and the analytics capability that supports it. It connects strategic intent – the goals and success factors defined by leadership – to the descriptive, predictive, and prescriptive analytics that inform action.
When your data initiatives are built on this alignment, every report, forecast, and model becomes a tool for achieving measurable progress against strategic goals. Without it, data becomes disconnected noise – expensive, but not impactful.
- Define What Success Really Looks Like
Many organisations can easily measure things like revenue or customer growth. But what about less tangible outcomes such as community wellbeing, Tikanga alignment, or supply chain efficiency?
Establishing the right metrics requires conversation and consensus. It continues to surprise us how many major New Zealand brands still lack defined, agreed metrics in critical areas of their business.
Performance Insight helps surface these gaps and ensure everyone – from the C-suite to the front line – understands what success means, how it will be measured, and why it matters.
- Build A Performance Management Culture
Performance Insight isn’t a dashboard, it’s a mindset.
When teams start asking “what’s in it for me?” and can see how data helps them perform better, they become active participants in the analytics journey. That’s when real transformation happens.
A CIO we worked with had never linked sales forecasting with procurement efficiency – until we introduced Performance Insight. Another GM of Sales used the framework to identify what distinguished his top-performing teams and replicate that success across the entire organisation.
These are the moments where data stops being theoretical and starts driving tangible business improvement.
From Insight to Action
Emerging technologies such as machine learning, in-memory analytics, and real-time data pipelines have made predictive and prescriptive insight more accessible than ever. But technology alone doesn’t deliver value.
To capture measurable ROI, organisations must define why they’re investing, what will change, and how success will be tracked. That’s what Performance Insight delivers – and why it’s a key Essential in every data programme.
Want to learn how Stellar’s Performance Insight framework can help you connect data strategy to enterprise outcomes?
Let’s talk. Call us on 0800 228 872 or email bi@stellarconsulting.co.nz.
