Compared to under-performing firms, top-performing companies are more than 20 times more likely to challenge the status quo within their organizations to improve the business or create new opportunities. Furthermore, the companies that excel are more than 15 times more likely to be able to predict and prepare in advance for anticipated events, and they are more than five times more likely to give employees authority to use information to make decisions and drive change.

These are among the most notable findings of a study released by IBM Global Business Services entitled "Breaking Away with Business Analytics and Optimization."  Based on a survey of more than 400 business leaders, the study broke respondents into two groups: "top performers" were those in the top quintile based on self-reported performance relative to industry peers while "lower performers" where those in the bottom two quintiles.

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