The Wall Street Journal reports,"worries over the upheaval in Crimea are rising, along with fears of an economic slowdown in China. But another drag on optimism—business uncertainty—is heading the other way.
The reason is twofold: Years of gyrating policy in Washington are giving way to comparative calm. And companies are becoming more nimble, using real-time data to maintain a close watch on their operations to adjust quickly to a volatile world.
On the first front, one gauge of the nervousness—the Economic Policy Uncertainty Index—has dropped to levels not seen since the earliest days of the 2007-2009 recession".
"Overall, policy uncertainty has dropped down to normal levels, and this is a key factor helping to restart growth in the U.S. and Europe," said Nicholas Bloom, an economist at Stanford University, and a creator of the uncertainty index.
On the second front, reams of data have supplanted instinct in driving decisions on everything from hiring and supply chains to shipment orders and routing.
Data allows businesses to "sync up supply and demand as never before," said Paul Ballew, chief data and analytic officer at Dun & Bradstreet. Market research decades ago involved considerable "trial and error," Mr. Ballew said. "Now there is far more science in it."
Companies want data—either in-house or secured from outside analytics firms—to enable "better demand estimates, a better ability to target market opportunities and a better ability to segment markets," he said.
Anheuser-Busch recently conducted a massive data-analysis project to tease out for the first time the sales tactics of its most successful beer sellers among roughly 40,000 U.S. retailers.
