Consistent success in today’s world requires more than hard work and experience
When I started bowhunting for deer in Illinois back in the early 80’s, I primarily hunted on public land. It was easy to locate, easy to access and there were generally quite a few deer around. The challenge was there were also LOTS of other hunters. And when you are hunting deer with a bow where you need to get within 25 yards for a shot, the hunting pressure made that task very difficult. That’s when I started actively looking for private land to hunt. I bought topographic maps to find the best terrain, purchased plot books to see who owned the parcels I wanted to hunt and knocked on a lot of doors. I also studied the patterns of other hunters in the area and glassed fields for hours to locate the big bucks. It was a lot of work and it required compiling a lot of information from many different sources. Point being, it took a tremendous amount of time and effort to finally locate a big buck to hunt.
In the last 5 years, I have learned to master the use of available data to more quickly locate private ground, obtain permission, find and actually arrow a big buck. The process that once took me years, I can now accomplish in less than one season in many cases. We use satellite imagery, trail cameras, land ownership apps, GPS mapping and sophisticated weather forecasts that project how the wind will react over a given piece of real estate to consistently get downwind of a big buck. And all of my serious hunting partners have embraced a similar ‘data culture’ to significantly improve their results. And like most things, deer hunting for mature bucks has gotten increasingly competitive as more hunters pursue access to fewer areas offering the best big buck habitat. The most successful big game hunters I know have fully embraced all of the available data, technology and subscription-based apps to consistently fill their tags. They have fully embraced a ‘data culture’ to achieve success.
Developing a data culture in your business is something you should seriously consider if you haven’t already done so. It may just be the difference between consistently reaching your business goals and being left with an unfilled tag…
Jim Clark,
Vice President, Professional Services