Data as a force for good
On the face of it, the use of data, and the meaning it can bring to businesses, is a complex topic to dig into. Can data be a force for good? Richard George from financial, technology, and data experts, Refinitiv, is on hand in EP07 of our YELLO podcast to share his take on the use of data and digital services and their symbiotic relationship.
Whether it’s a customized Spotify playlist that hits just the right chord or the annoying online ads that follow us for weeks, we’re familiar with both the benefits and drawbacks of a data-driven world from the consumer perspective.
In this episode, we explore how individuals and companies can tap into financial and business data to have a positive effect on consumers, businesses, and the planet.
We hope you’ll give the full podcast a listen, but for those strapped for time, we’ve collected highlights below from Richard George’s thoughtful dialogue with our host Guro Røberg, Strategic Design Director from our Oslo studio.
What do we mean by data?
According to Richard, data is all the information that’s both in the public and private domain. Information transforms into valuable data the moment you first begin to aggregate, simulate and analyze it.
It all begins with data
Data is the starting point. Data processing is really the fuel that powers the likes of artificial intelligence, machine learning, and other technologies. But data alone doesn’t ensure better business. The data needs to be used and applied in the right ways to generate value.
In today’s world, you can’t drive business performance without having strong underlying data.
Data as a driver of diversity and inclusion
If we think about sustainability, if we think about things like diversity and inclusion, the role that data has to expose and to hold people, businesses, governments accountable is very strong.
Data to create more meaningful design
Design is really about making sure that what we’re designing and creating is fit for the customer. Truly understanding the customer starts with some kind of data to understand their habits, their needs, and then using that data to inform the experience.
No excuses
There’s really no excuse to have bad intelligence. If businesses don’t use data in the right way, then at some point their luck will run out and they’ll go down the wrong path.
Is GDPR a good thing for businesses?
Privacy frameworks like GDPR force businesses to focus on: What data do you need to capture? How do you use that to make the customer experience better?
Drowning in petabytes of data?
There are 55 billion daily updates on financial markets, 176 billion daily market messages from 150,000 data sources contributing to 60 petabytes of financial data from the past 20 years. (By the way — 1 petabyte = 1024 terabytes)
How do you measure impact?
The holy grail of marketing for so many years has been this idea of an actual attribution model that works. It’s been talked about for a long time, but it’s always so difficult to tie the data points together.
Hungry for more?
Listen to the full podcast to get all of Richard George’s insights on the power of data to drive business and improve customer experience.
Get the full story in the latest YELLO podcast. Relevant to anyone who gives a damn about building a better future.
Richard George is Global Head, Digital & Account-Based Marketing at Refinitiv.
