73 Kellogg Insight “If I don’t occasionally do the wrong thing, I will never know whether what I think is the best actually still is the best,” says Zettelmeyer. What the Best Firms Are Doing Of course, firms have plenty of good rea - sons for not wanting to richly reward incompetence, or promote a manager whose decision-making seems limited to coin flips. Instead, top firms have adopted a funda - mentally different strategy for thinking about big data. “The best firms are heavily investing now in creating data, designing data,” says Anderson. “They’re purposefully injecting variability in the data.” Whether they are experimenting with how many days it takes to deliver a pack - age, how to set prices, or how to best maintain an aging fleet of vehicles, these elite firms understand that experimenta - tion and variability need to be built into the organization’s DNA. “It’s just a miniscule fraction of firms” If I don’t occasionally do the wrong thing, I will never know whether what I think is the best actually still is the best. FLORIAN ZETTELMEYER Based on insights from Eric T. Anderson and Florian Zettelmeyer