Table 2 Practical judgment: setting... | Emerald Publishing

Table 2

Practical judgment: setting priorities and exercising restraint

	Setting priorities	Exercising restraint
Example 1 Data analysis	Issue: More data and new DA tools equate to more ways of doing things. Countless opportunities for interesting analyses	Issue: Easy to get lost and/or carried away in rich/granular datasets and waste time on interesting but unimportant analyses
Example 1 Data analysis	Need: Determine the focus and level of analysis that is most likely to produce decision- and value-relevant insights (considering time and resource constraints)	Need: Recognize “good enough” solutions. Continuously assess how much means and ends (analyses, findings) contribute to the contextual whole (investment decision)
Example 2 Management discussions	Issue: More granular data does not eliminate the need for questions. Rather, questions tend to arise in different places and/or at a more granular level	Issue: Access to detailed data makes it tempting to ask equally detailed questions. Risk that questions go beyond discussion partner’s, e.g. Group CFO’s, knowledge
Example 2 Management discussions	Need: Assess what questions are (not) important enough to be asked, investigated and answered (overall relevance, see Ex. 1)	Need: Pose questions that, whilst having a high information value, minimize the risk of non- or false answers from management
Example 3 Reporting	Issue: High-quality data and sufficient time make it comparably easy to produce insights in abundant numbers – only some of which are relevant to clients’ decisions	Issue: Although it is tempting to show everything, i.e. all the findings, presenting too much information can overburden the client (“information overload”)
Example 3 Reporting	Need: Develop reports around the most essential findings; assess different insights’ impact on decision, valuation and pricing	Need: Plan and perform presentations in such a way that clients’ attention is directed to the most important insights and findings

	Setting priorities	Exercising restraint
Example 1Data analysis	Issue: More data and new DA tools equate to more ways of doing things. Countless opportunities for interesting analyses	Issue: Easy to get lost and/or carried away in rich/granular datasets and waste time on interesting but unimportant analyses
Example 1Data analysis	Need: Determine the focus and level of analysis that is most likely to produce decision- and value-relevant insights (considering time and resource constraints)	Need: Recognize “good enough” solutions. Continuously assess how much means and ends (analyses, findings) contribute to the contextual whole (investment decision)
Example 2Management discussions	Issue: More granular data does not eliminate the need for questions. Rather, questions tend to arise in different places and/or at a more granular level	Issue: Access to detailed data makes it tempting to ask equally detailed questions. Risk that questions go beyond discussion partner’s, e.g. Group CFO’s, knowledge
Example 2Management discussions	Need: Assess what questions are (not) important enough to be asked, investigated and answered (overall relevance, see Ex. 1)	Need: Pose questions that, whilst having a high information value, minimize the risk of non- or false answers from management
Example 3Reporting	Issue: High-quality data and sufficient time make it comparably easy to produce insights in abundant numbers – only some of which are relevant to clients’ decisions	Issue: Although it is tempting to show everything, i.e. all the findings, presenting too much information can overburden the client (“information overload”)
Example 3Reporting	Need: Develop reports around the most essential findings; assess different insights’ impact on decision, valuation and pricing	Need: Plan and perform presentations in such a way that clients’ attention is directed to the most important insights and findings

Source(s): Table created by the authors