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DATA STRATEGY
Who Needs Data Anyway?
At any company, data is nothing if not supported by 3 pillars
Today I want to talk about a subject I don’t hear much about, at least not enough compared to my own experience in the field:
We take for granted the idea that data is the oil of the 21st century.
But what if we were all wrong?
In most data-related articles everyone — the author as well as the audience — considers that data is necessary for a company to succeed. In most cases we all agree that data is useful, that it is necessary for a company to keep growing and improving itself. We are convinced that using data in the best way will bring our business countless opportunities. But have you ever considered that this was not necessarily the case?
What if using data was actually useless to run a company?
What if an unknown percentage of companies don’t care that much about their data and yet are doing (very) well?
What if a silent majority of executives were left apart just because an untold assumption about data is that we all need data to “make better decisions”? In other words we would be unable to make the best decisions for a business without a great amount of data analyzed.
While the advantages for using data at a company are numerous, making a tangible use of data for business purposes is not so trivial. To me this is what leads to a gap between two opposing visions: “I don’t need data at all to run my business” versus “I won’t make any decision unless it’s not backed up by a bunch of data analysis”.
Let me take you through my way of thinking and the solutions I could think about to reconcile these two perspectives.
The problem is not “data”, it lies somewhere else
On one side many executives are aware that data has a high potential for growth and/or optimization opportunities. “Data” is not a buzzword anymore: it is part of our daily life. Just look at your phone’s weekly report, at your smart watch, at your latest year in review from your favorite music streaming app. It’s basically everywhere.
