Big Data continues to be a key preoccupation for business.
Experts promise a world where the Internet of Things (IoT) proliferates and tiny, inexpensive sensors collect massive amounts of data. New, powerful databases coupled with information storage technology and analytical tools offer the promise of gleaning amazing insights and finding patterns we never before imagined. However there appears to be a clear separation growing between the rate of data processing advances and the rate of data growth.
So how can businesses now use big data to improve operational processes, increase ROI and drive better performance across entire organisations?
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27 JANUARY
08:30 – 11:30
BIG DATA AND BETTER DECISION MAKING
Become a data-driven organisation
In order for a business to achieve better results with Big Data, you must first become a data-driven organisation. Which is easy to say and hard to implement. This requires changing the way your company operates from the top executives down to entry-level employees.
- You must:
- Adopt technology to harvest existing data
- Create a culture of data transparency
- Set measurable goals
- Hold your team accountable using metrics
Crucial first steps include determining what business problem or problems you want to solve with the technology you deploy, what key performance metrics (KPIs) are most important to measure, and ensuring that your entire organization understands these goals. And creating a culture of data transparency–makes all the difference between establishing an average business and a data-driven business. It can be difficult for many companies to allow every employee to access sensitive business data. However, you need to have true transparency in order to have true accountability to the data-driven goals you set for your team.
Empower every employee to be a mini-CEO
(Some companies give every employee access to all of their board materials and all department goals and metrics. They do this because they believe it empowers their company to think quantitatively, not qualitatively, and it helps propel objective, data-driven conversations across all departments.)
Rather than just forcing employees to use analytical tools, it is best to empower them to use them. Empower every employee to be a mini-CEO, so-to-speak, where they take ownership and run their own area of the business. They should make commitments to reach a certain metric that measures performance, explain why they commit to that goal, and then be held accountable to it.
Remember analyzing Big Data isn’t just about spreadsheets, tools or numbers. It’s about using quantitative, objective measurement to drive all company conversations.
Don’t forget the value of small data
It is also important too, in any consideration of Big Data, not to forget the value of small data. While everyone is focused on Big Data, branding and consumer behaviour expert, Martin Lindstrom argues that what makes the real difference is ‘small data’. He is one of the top management thinkers in the world and author of several best-sellers translated into more than 50 languages.
He asks questions such as ‘Why is it that we check out the contents in the fridge – realize there’s nothing interesting – then revisit it again five minutes later – just to be sure?’ Then, he explains how the smallest clues lead to the biggest ideas enabling better customer experiences and brand turnarounds.
His forthcoming book is called: ‘Small Data – the Tiny Clues that Uncover Huge Trends’. You can watch the book trailer here:
And finally
with all data – big or small – the quality of visualisation remains critical. How you design and present the data can make such a difference to illuminating issues and how you motivate people to respond to the data insights.
Here are some interesting examples:
http://webseasoning.com/articles/data-visualization/8302/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/britainfromabove/stories/people/teatimebritain.shtml
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Members of the Digital and Social Media Leadership Forum will be exploring these issues at our next meeting on the morning of January 27th in London. Members will be helped by a group of Big Data industry innovators and leading edge Big Data start-ups.
There will be plenty of opportunities to have your personal questions answered and to meet your peers from other leading organisations who are facing similar challenges. There will be prizes awarded for the best contributions.