In every corporation, there are two levels of decision-making—the corporate level of decision-making and the personal level of decision-making. The corporate level of decision-making is a formal and even regulated environment. The personal level of decision-making is informal.

There is a big difference between the corporate level of decision-making and the personal level of decision-making. The corporate level of decision-making is where there are contracts, management decisions, and even compliance regulations. There is responsibility to the shareholders at this level of decision-making.

The other level of decision-making is the personal level of decision-making. The personal level of decision-making is off the cuff, individual, and informal. There usually is not any audit trail here. Personal decisions are made spontaneously and the needs for personal decision-making as fluid, changing as often as every minute.

The personal analyst can look at data—any data—through the facilities of the personal analytic environment. The analyst can look at corporate data or personal data. The analyst can look at data in his/her time frame. There is no time constraint on doing personal analysis.

Fig. 13.1.1 shows the two kinds of decision-making.

Personal decision-making is fluid and dynamic. The ideal tool for personal decision-making is the personal computer. The personal computer is affordable, able to be relocated, and versatile. The personal computer is able to be refocused at the drop of a hat.

There is little or no need for formal system analysis or development of the personal computer. The analyst just sits down and jots down what is useful and relevant about what needs to be analyzed.

Of course, the personal computer does not have the speed and capacity of the larger corporate computers. The personal computer is not capable of processing the amount of data that a corporate computer can process. But that is of little concern to the individual analyst.

Fig. 13.1.2 shows that the personal computer is the best tool available for the individual doing personal analysis.

The most popular tool available to the personal analyst is the spreadsheet. The spreadsheet—as measured by a number of licenses—has to be the most ubiquitous tool for analysis that there is. There are millions and millions of spreadsheets on personal computers around the world.

At a Midwest bank recently, it was estimated that for the 2000 employees at the bank's one site, there were 4,000,000 spreadsheets that had been created in order to make banking decisions.

Fig. 13.1.3 shows that the spreadsheet is the analytic tool most used on the personal computer.

There are great advantages to the spreadsheet. The largest advantage is the autonomy the spreadsheet provides the individual analyst. The analyst can do anything he/she wants with the spreadsheet. The analyst can enter any formula, can enter any data, and can change any data that he/she wishes to. There is no one telling the analyst what to do or how to do it.

A second advantage of the spreadsheet is that the spreadsheet is immediate. The analyst needs no special preparation time in order to start using the tool. The analyst just sits down and starts to use the spreadsheet. The analyst can use the spreadsheet to help formulate and structure what needs to be analyzed.

A third advantage of the spreadsheet is its ability to be flexible. The spreadsheet can be changed to suit almost any kind of analysis.

Another advantage of the spreadsheet is its cost. Oftentimes, the cost of the spreadsheet is born when the personal computer is purchased and there is no further charge for the usage of the spreadsheet.

For these reasons and many more, the spreadsheet has found its way into many different environments.

Fig. 13.1.4 shows the advantages of the spreadsheet.

But there are some disadvantages to the spreadsheet. The first disadvantage is that the spreadsheet can be changed at will. Anyone building and managing a spreadsheet can place any value at any time into the spreadsheet, and the spreadsheet won’t complain. This means that the source of data going into the spreadsheet is not able to be audited. If an analyst wishes to give himself/herself a raise, as far as the spreadsheet is concerned, the raise has been granted. This of course may not be a reflection of reality. But the spreadsheet does not know or care. Making corporate decisions that are governed by management, contracts, legislature, and shareholders is not advisable when the source of data is a spreadsheet because of this lack of integrity of data.

Another disadvantage of the spreadsheet is that the systems that are created on the spreadsheet are not created with the discipline and the rigor of the corporate-based systems. It is always easy to change a system created on a spreadsheet. But where rigor and discipline of processing are required, that ease of a change in functionality is a liability, not an asset.

Fig. 13.1.5 shows that there are some drawbacks with the spreadsheet.

Decisions are made at both the corporate level and the personal level. But the impact of the decisions is very different. Decisions made at the corporate level affect the budget and the policy of the corporation. Personal decisions influence how an individual does his/her job. But when the day comes where corporate decisions are being made using personal tools, there is a fundamental problem. Fig. 13.1.6 shows that personal decisions should only indirectly influence corporate decisions.

Stated differently, when an individual uses his/her tools on a personal basis and convinces himself/herself and perhaps others of a course of action or a change in policy, the individual then must convince the corporation. But the person doing the individual analysis is not in a position to directly interface the corporate data and systems with the personal data and systems.

In a way, the personal analytic systems become an analytic “sandbox.”

Fig. 13.1.7 shows that the personal analytic environment is another form of a sandbox.

In the sandbox, the personal analyst can do anything—can use any data, can use any algorithm, and can process with no fear of impacting others. But at the end, when the analyst has gained insights from the sandbox experience, the analyst must then institutionalize the results and insight into the corporate system infrastructure.

So, there is a very real and very beneficial impact on corporate system from personal analytic decisions. However, the impact is indirect not direct.