Unmasking the 'Franken-report': Why Inadequate Data Skills Threaten Organisational Integrity

Accurately interpreting and using data is essential for organisational success in a world dominated by data. However, when this critical task is left to those lacking the necessary skills, what emerges is often a distortion of what the data should represent. Dubbed ‘Franken-reports’, these documents are a result of combining ill-fitting data sets, leading to dangerous misrepresentations that can cause serious business miscalculations.  

Much like Mary Shelley’s infamous creature, a ‘Franken-report’ is built from disparate parts, stitched together without proper methodology or understanding. Its creators may have the best intentions but lack the essential skills to create a coherent and accurate representation of the data. Instead of providing clarity, a ‘Franken-report’ confuses, misleads, and can guide organisations down misinformed paths. 

While the above examples capture the essence of ‘Franken-reports’, the recent data breach involving the Northern Ireland police also tells a cautionary tale of a workforce with deficient data skills. A lack of data skills can result in data leaks or breaches which have the potential to harm just as much as inaccurate reports. The Northern Ireland police data breach isn’t an isolated incident; it’s a warning siren highlighting the dangers of inadequately handled or misrepresented data. This incident serves as a reminder that data-driven clarity is crucial to any organisation’s operations.  

Corndel’s Data Report 2023 reveals the scale of the data skills gap, with 90% of employees recognising a skills gap in their organisations and 82% unfamiliar with leveraging Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools. This deprived skills landscape exacerbates the likelihood of ‘Franken-reports’ emerging across all industries and business areas. While the advancement of AI offers enormous potential, it also raises the stakes, increasing the possibility of ‘garbage in, garbage out’. If the input data is flawed, AI will churn out results based on these inaccuracies, further magnifying the distortion.

Dr Joe Watkins, a seasoned data expert at Corndel, provides invaluable insight. “When you encounter a ‘Franken-report’, it’s usually a product of someone who may know what they want – a pie chart here, a table there – but doesn’t grasp the nuances and technicalities of data,” he explains. Watkins notes the frequent assumption among leaders that any data analysis is better than none, without stopping to question the quality or validity of the data itself.  

In the words of Dr Joe Watkins, “The worst-case scenario is a leader so keen to get a result that they ignore how good or bad the data is.” But, as evidenced, the implications of ‘Franken-reports’ go far beyond a single erroneous decision. They can cascade through an organisation, eroding its financial health, tarnishing its reputation, and stymying its potential for growth and innovation. 

This perspective is chilling when you consider Watkins’ mention of the industry adage: 80% of data work is about gathering and preparing data, while analysis is the relatively minor conclusion. It’s the rigorous groundwork that prevents a report from morphing into a ‘Franken-report’.  

But there’s hope. With strategic skills development, employees, managers, and leaders can be empowered to prevent these disastrous creations from seeing the light of day. Leaders must have foundational data understanding to steer their teams correctly. “They should foster a robust framework, ensuring data quality and consistency,” Watkins advises. Blindly chasing results or forecasts without considering data quality can be catastrophic. Leaders must be adept enough to discern a ‘Franken-report’ from a genuine one.