I often deal with companies interested in big data and analytics, but who are struggling to develop a strategy, especially the looming challenge of ‘where to start’. This is good guidance on HBR on setting a foundation for your analytics strategy…
Originally posted at Harvard Business Review by Narendra Mulani on June 15, 2015
https://hbr.org/2015/06/simplify-your-analytics-strategy 
“While the interests in analytics and resulting benefits are increasing by the day, some businesses are challenged by the complexity and confusion that analytics can generate. Companies can get stuck trying to analyze all that’s possible and all that they could do through analytics, when they should be taking that next step of recognizing what’s important and what they should be doing — for their customers, stakeholders, and employees. Discovering real business opportunities and achieving desired outcomes can be elusive.
To overcome this, companies should pursue a simpler path to uncovering the insight in their data and making insight-driven decisions that add value. Following are steps that we have seen work in a number of companies to simplify their analytics strategy and generate insight that leads to real outcomes…”
View the original article on HBR here:
SCTR7: Data Science and Analytics 
July 3, 2015
Management