Data as a Blueprint for Renewal and Value

When the Numbers No Longer Added Up

By 2013, Hewlett-Packard was under pressure, and an imminent spin-off was looming over our heads. That was eventually completed in 2015, casting a long shadow across the organization, elevating tensions, shifting priorities, and making decisions became increasingly political.

On paper, my own numbers looked promising: I had completed a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt project that saved the company more than 12 million dollars, had trained relentlessly, delivered measurable results, and contributed to the broader transformation agenda. Anyway, the recognition that could be substantiated with a small salary raise or promotion, that never happened.

Professor Bob Sutton, in “The No Asshole Rule”, describes how toxic leadership can cause attrition and bring down not just morale but performance. His research shows that the presence of destructive managers can reduce team effectiveness by up to 40 percent. For me, this wasn’t an abstract theory; it was observed around me. Metrics alone, even millions saved, were not enough to outweigh the cost of an environment where arrogance overshadowed collaboration. The signs and data collected pointed one way, and I did my own prediction and told myself that it was time for me to move on.

Renewal at the Personal and Organizational Level

Leaving HP for Credit Suisse was not only a career pivot, but it was an act of renewal, and while looking back, the spin-off every financial analyst had anticipated reshaped the company just two years later. Watching it from a safe distance confirmed something important during my journey: that data is not just about describing the past, but that it's a great way to work on potential scenarios that signal when renewal is necessary.

Ancient Mesopotamian and Egyptian traditions had a Jubilee happening every 49 years, when debts were cancelled, land was restored, and communities reset. The point was not financial efficiency, but moral and social renewal. Organizations can also face these cyclical times when things must be transformed, reinvented. Declining margins, rising attrition, or shifting customer expectations are signals that the story has changed, leaving the question of whether leaders dare to act before crisis forces renewal.

At Hewlett-Packard, renewal was overdue when Hardware margins started shrinking over consecutive quarters, and even still, incentives remained tied to volume and market share. Political back-stabbing wars became visible and drained the energy of every employee. By the time the spin-off finally happened, many of my colleagues who didn't jump on plan B admitted that the warning signs had been obvious for a very long time, and even low-level managers became toxic.

The Hidden Cost of Ignoring Renewal

Many organizations resist renewal until it is too late, for instance, Kodak, with data
showing the rise of digital photography but clinging to its film business. Nokia saw smartphone adoption but hesitated to pivot fast enough; in each case, the outcome was dictated by data, but leaders chose to ignore it at their own risk.

The cost of ignoring renewal is not only financial, but it erodes trust, morale, and talent. Employees sense when strategies are out of step with reality, and customers detect when promises are not backed by performance. Shareholders lose patience when warnings are ignored, and quite often what begins as numbers in a spreadsheet ends as a collapse of confidence.

By contrast, companies that embrace renewal treat data as a living feedback system. Microsoft was facing stagnation in the early 2010s, and shifted from a software licensing model to a cloud-first, subscription-based business. Netflix pivoted from DVDs to streaming, and then again to original content. These moves were not accidental; they were responses to signals embedded in data. Renewal, when adopted early and taking a people-first approach, can transform risk into opportunity and bring a sense of safety to all involved.

Beyond Efficiency: The Search for Value

For years, data-driven transformation was framed around efficiency. Projects were justified by cost savings, cycle-time reductions, or error rates. These metrics mattered, but by the mid 2010s, leading organizations began to realize that efficiency alone was not enough. In finance, efficiency freed up capital, but value emerged when analytics uncovered entirely new revenue opportunities, such as personalized wealth management or real-time fraud detection.

In media, automation reduced costs, but value came from understanding cultural resonance and shaping audience behavior, as platforms discovered that engagement was not just about clicks but about loyalty. In manufacturing, predictive maintenance saved downtime, but value appeared when IoT data reshaped entire service models, enabling companies to sell uptime rather than machines. The lesson is simple: the impact of data lies not in how much is collected, but in how it is transformed into value.

Narrative as the Bridge to Meaning

Value requires meaning; without that, a key process indicator is losing power, regaining that only once it is connected to tangible outcomes that employees and customers care about. At HP, data inputs revealed structural shifts long before strategy did. At IBM and DXC Technology, I could see global service centers maturing from cost-focused outsourcing into strategic hubs. In each case, leaders who framed data as part of a narrative strategy were not just focused on efficiency metrics; they brilliantly managed to reposition their organizations for the future.

For individuals, perhaps the same is true. Numbers told me I had saved millions, and the narrative told me those numbers would not translate into recognition in a toxic environment. That story became a way to move me forward. Thinking about that, the narrative gave the numbers meaning, and meaning led to actionable steps towards another scenario.

The Bridge to Control

When acted upon, Data signals opportunity, but it can also carry a warning when the risks are so blatantly ignored. My move from HP to Credit Suisse marked a personal renewal, but it also exposed me to the critical role governance plays in survival. Over the decade that followed, I watched Credit Suisse stumble repeatedly from a CEO pleading guilty for evading money from their customers to fiscal heavens to compliance failures and risk management breakdowns. That mess lasted too long, until UBS acquired it in 2023. The signals were always present, with regulatory fines, cultural issues, and mounting risks. A Swiss Bank has an arsenal with the best financial analysts the world can afford, but without accountability, that story was never translated into decisive action.

The story of Credit Suisse echoes other cautionary tales. Wells Fargo, plagued by scandals, ignored early warnings about sales culture. Boeing, prioritizing cost and speed over safety, overlooked data that pointed to systemic risks in aircraft design. In each case, data was present, but governance failed utterly.

The lesson over time became clearer: without governance, data loses its impact, and the organization can produce data modeling, sophisticated Business Intelligence reports, track risks like no one else, and showcase analytics, but if those signals are not acted upon by real people, the leadership of that enterprise is effectively flying blind.

This realization leads naturally to the next stage of the journey when Data has the potential to provide clarity, renewal, and direction. But clarity without accountability is insufficient, making control of the structures, disciplines, and cultural mechanisms that ensure information as a trusted mechanism that requires decisiveness and integrity - otherwise even the best analytics can fail. For me, the years between 2013 and 2015 represented the closing of one chapter and the opening of another, with Data as the steward and control soon becoming the amplifying lens through which I evaluated not only personal choices, but also the survival of global institutions.

Takeaway: Renewal and Survival

Data is more than numbers, more like a blueprint for renewal, leading to uncovering value, and ultimately finding ways to ensure organizations thrive and survive. Numbers without meaning fade into background noise, but they can drive change when framed as a narrative. At the organizational level, the impact of data is measured not just in dollars saved but in resilience built, opportunities unlocked, and futures secured. At the personal level, the story is the same: Leaving a toxic environment stalling growth, interpreting the context, and recognizing that renewal was necessary.

For leaders, the takeaways are clear: Renewal is a strategic response to changing warnings. Efficiency metrics are necessary but insufficient; true value lies in new opportunities revealed by data. And finally, perhaps the most important takeaway: Governance is the bridge from clarity to survival; without it, even the best insights go to waste. Enterprises that thrive are those that listen to what their data is telling them and act before the story turns into a crisis.