[m104]

It's true and unfortunately this has been my experience at a couple of previous employers as well. Given the difficulties of actually collecting good data and properly analyzing it, it's no wonder that the same analytical tools, used to great success in some companies, can be rendered useless or even harmful.

I'll add that a third reason for the obsession over analytics is that stat reports tend to take the focus off of the decision makers themselves. Managers who aren't confident in (or wishing to escape responsibility from) their decisions can simply blame the numbers and graphs and say they had no other alternative.

In some dysfunctional organizations, "judgement" and "decision" are bad words that imply bias and liability, whereas "report" and "conclusion" are pure gold.

Don't be too discouraged, though. There are plenty of employers who avoid using analytics inappropriately and know that great products and customer service are even better than stat reports in the long run.