The Decade of Data Defined
In the last month, we’ve seen Toys R Us enter bankruptcy, we learned the Deepmind AI self-taught itself the game Go, and we heard Tesla Motors plans to release self-driving semi-trucks in 2019. These events represent significant paradigm shifts.
How much more do you think we’ll see in the next 120 months? It’s time to start thinking about that because these kinds of massive shake ups are going to happen in every industry. And they’re going to start occurring at an incredible rate in the next ten years. I call this time frame the Decade of Data.
Before we get to the next ten years of data, let’s take a brief look at how the last ten years have gone. We know that large companies, the kinds that make up the Fortune 1000 rosters, have pushed Big Data. They know that data is important, and they’ve been collecting as much of it as they can.
In the process, they form their data lakes. Stockpiles of data in their IT systems that have no use cases. The executives of these companies clearly know that data is important, but until now they haven’t developed a strategy for using it. At the same time, we see that data is increasingly commoditized.
Information that may have been difficult to get even a decade ago is now available to everyone, often for a very low cost. As a result, their existing competitive advantages from their current data is beginning to erode. So to retain or build new competitive advantage, these companies have to look at the rest of this huge amount of data they have, and start mapping out new correlations. You can find out more about this in the post I wrote about obtaining a competitive advantage.
Which brings us to the point we are now. In the Finance space, in particular, companies are using alternative financial data to recapture competitive advantage. Alternative financial data is Big Data that Finance firms use which isn’t available everywhere.
This kind of expanded data utilization is beginning to happen in other industries, as more companies realize that they need to utilize the data that they’ve been gathering. They’re developing solid game plans around using their data. A company like Facebook, for instance, is a model for them.
Facebook, as you probably know, has a massive data pool which its gleaned from its user base. That data pool and the correlation of that data is what gives the company its extraordinary value. It’s not how much advertising they’re selling; it’s the amount of data and correlations the company can determine. That’s where the value of Big Data comes from, drawing correlations to data points that you care about as an organization.
The mass adoption of Big Data will continue, as people realize how useful it is and how it drives real results in their market space. By the time we get to 2023, or halfway through the Decade of Data, we’re going to see more formerly iconic brands — like Toys R Us — suddenly disappear. Conversely, long dead brands will return as their new owners leverage the power of data to get into markets that previously were not accessible.
We’re going to see more formerly iconic brands suddenly disappear.
When you combine this with the forces driving the fourth Industrial Revolution: the Internet, Big Data, artificial intelligence, etc., a switch will occur. That switch will set a path leading us to the end of the Decade of Data. By 2028, data will be so prevalent in every market landscape that you won’t need data for a competitive advantage; you’ll need it just to stay in business.
Data is the most valuable asset in the world.
I have a simple premise upon which I founded Corveye: data is the most valuable asset in the world. We exist to help companies take advantage of their data and benefit from it. Nothing is truer than data, and it’s such a key for transformation in the right direction for your business.
So if you don’t have a data strategy right now, or if you’ve been using Big Data and haven’t been able to see much value in it, Corveye can help fuel those conversations in your business. Or if you think you have a profitable dataset, with knowledge you know is important to other markets and you’d like to investigate monetizing it, please reach out. Corveye would love to help you. We can help you enter the Decade of Data on the right footing, and be in a position to reap the rewards of all the rapid changes that it’s going to bring.
It’s the #DecadeOfData, are you profiting from it?
