At any organisation - especially those that have grown more complex over time - it makes sense to split some tasks and responsibilities into smaller units. Encouraging specialism, closer collaboration and manageable focus can all bring benefits to the bottom line.

Nowhere is this illustrated better than in sport and entertainment. A major sports team will have its players; its coaches and support staff; physios and nutritionists to prepare the body; analysts to feed the mind. Off the field, you have those whose role it is to bring in money, those who reach out to fans through media and community projects, those who keep the venue running, and many others besides.

That expansion of roles and duties has only accelerated in the past decade and each group will have their own internal benchmarks for success. But in all the best-run teams in sport, everyone knows what the real goal is and will pull together to reach it.

A focus on organisational growth, as well as departmental growth, can stop in-house competitiveness from becoming destructive and instead make it serve the greater good. The right outlook on data can help to make that happen.

With the Phokus platform, you can see a fuller picture of your business and how it works for your customers. You can learn more about those customers, get a better sense of what they want and see where their money and time are being spent across your whole company.

That can help you to increase yield per head by directing people to products and services that may also be right for them. It can have that effect within the company, too, either by sending prospects between departments or by demonstrating best practice that can work right across the group.

By looking hard at the data, any business really can build something greater than the sum of its parts.