Thriving in a data-driven world

It is hard to imagine that the iPhone was first announced in 2007, just a little over 13 years ago. Nowadays, smartphones have become an integral part of our daily lives. It has created brand new industries and disrupted old ones, from ride hailing to food delivery. It has also drastically changed consumer experience and expectations from finance to entertainment to social interaction. A phone is no longer just a device where we place telephone calls — it has transformed to become the center of our day-to-day interaction and a connector to our parallel digital universe.

Welcome to the era of “Always On, Everywhere”. 

Never before have we had so much power in the palm of our hands. And never before have so much data been generated and captured on a daily basis — with our very being and every activity traced and tracked. 

“Humans and machines will generate, at minimum, 175 Zettabytes of data over the next five years alone”, according to the Zettabyte World ebook by Dell Technologies. The future of business requires the ability to move and analyze massive amounts of data at speed. Preparing for a data-driven world is no longer a nice-to-do side project, but table stake for any corporate strategy in this digital era. 

According to a recent study from Forrester, commissioned by Dell Technologies, “71% of data decision-makers are gathering data faster than they can analyze and use, yet 66% say they constantly need more data than their current capabilities provide.” To make matters worse, only 13% of decision-makers report their firms have struck the right balance between cultural and technological readiness when it comes to navigating the deluge of data. B

Source: Dell Technologies

This is concerning as the demand for data is only increasing, and simply gathering data is not enough; you have to be able to turn it into actionable insights for it to be valuable, and for it to become a competitive advantage for your business. 

So how can organizations recognize and best leverage such crucial assets to its full potential and drive transformative changes? 

Data as competitive advantage 

Data is the fundamental building block for all businesses — and it can become a company’s competitive advantage if we invest in the trifecta of people, process, and technology. 

Let’s illustrate this using Formula One racing as an analogy. 

Since its inaugural season in 1950, the prestigious motor racing competition has changed dramatically. Formula One cars are the fastest racing cars in the world, and Formula One racing is also a highly technical sport that relies heavily on data analytics and teamwork. Each car is outfitted with hundreds of sensors that transmit gigabytes of live data back to the pit during the race. The data is then analyzed real time by teams of engineers and used to inform driving strategies and design changes. To say that data is the fuel for the race car is an understatement; but it is not just about collecting data. Rather, it is about understanding what data needs to be measured, dissecting what is important while filtering out the noise, and leveraging the insights to implement changes and fine-tune designs.  

Beyond data and technology, there is another crucial component for race success: People. For a sport where every second matters, finding the right driver with the right talent, and assembling a team that can collaborate and communicate seamlessly on track and off track, is equally important. After all, even the most competitive car requires people to win a race.

Which brings us back to our data paradox.

Data is a team sport. In addition to having the right leadership and strategy, creating the winning formula requires having the right team with the right skill sets, in order to understand what needs to be collected, how to process and utilize the data available, and serve up useful data for the organization.

Turning the data strategy challenges into opportunities will require businesses to treat data as capital, and to create the right environment for it to thrive, with the right balance of culture and technology. Harnessing the potential of a data-as-a-service model and selecting the right partner for the journey will help organizations scale and adapt to changing business needs. And that in itself, is the first step companies can take to thrive in a data-driven world, and become a data-first, data-anywhere business.

Find out more about the Data Paradox study, and how to manage data overload in the on-demand economy here.

This post is sponsored by Dell Technologies. Opinions are my own and don’t necessarily represent Dell Technologies’s positions or strategies.