This article by Corey White was first published on the blog of Future Point of View, Scott Klososky’s consulting firm.
Football coaches naturally seek big offensive linemen to protect their valuable quarterbacks and running backs – the bigger the better. A problem arises because these rather large offensive linemen can also be incredibly slow, making them vulnerable to speedy opponents. A similar dilemma in data collection is becoming increasingly apparent. For years organizations have gobbled up data like a beefy o-lineman gobbles up ham at the buffet. This data was meant to make these organizations more nimble, more able to make informed decisions quickly. In a way, it has done the opposite, it has caused data obesity.
For the last half decade, leaders have screamed “get me my big data.” This desire to collect as much data as possible has led to a sort of data gluttony. Data is great. It’s not just great, it’s essential. It can indeed help leaders make better decisions, benefit the customer experience, and promote organizational lean. One of our favorite metaphors here at FPOV is data being a raw material like crude oil. Data will fuel the digital age and become even more critical as the internet of things becomes more prevalent and implantables are more accepted. Yet data is only valuable when it is used properly, when it is exercised, not parked on the couch in front of the television left snacking on a bag of Doritos.
Data obesity does no more than create a fog around organizations. Instead of providing clarity, it creates a cloud, muddling visibility. Data is only effective if you can take it and turn it into intelligence, then knowledge, and finally wisdom. We often forget that the value of data is not the data itself, but how you use it as a weapon in the marketplace. Data has the ability to generate answers to nearly every question, but the trick is to define those specific questions and then to locate the data necessary to answer those questions. Really, everything else is just complication.
What are some ways to shed big data poundage and live a healthier big data strategy?
Drop Bad Data: Bad data is a big winner of the big data gold rush. Like an unwelcome varmit, it has made itself a cozy nest inside vast databases. Meanwhile organizations must pay to house this unnecessary and harmful distraction. When bad data is included in analysis it skews and ultimately ruins results. This includes expired data, which isn’t much different than spoiled milk, it stinks.
Scale Back: Organizations can benefit by identifying and retaining merely its most relevant data. This will help reduce the volume of organizational data and make sifting through the remaining data much more manageable.
Architect Data: Big data needs to be organized, planned, classified, and cleaned. Doing this requires agile architecture. Proper storage architecture and taxonomy structure can act as a data dam, only allowing past access when required or needed. Meanwhile, unstructured results lead to bad and potentially harmful analysis.
Less Cleaning More Analyzing: A 2015 survey by Xplenty found that business intelligence professionals spend 50-90% of their time just cleaning raw data and preparing it for analytics. This is backwards. It’s like having your all-star quarterback play waterboy. These valuable BI professionals should be spending their time evaluating data not simply preparing it for review. According to the survey, the biggest challenges these professionals face are integrating data from different platforms, formatting and cleaning data, integrating related and non-related data, and managing data volume. An effort to blueprint your data architecture will help you find ways to streamline your collection methods and integrate your warehouses together. Connection is key. In order to maximize your data you must ensure that it flows properly throughout all corners of your organization and the appropriate people are able to access all relevant data effortlessly.
Identify Focused Goals: Big data is like a glittering Las Vegas casino. They each contain a lot of easy ways to get distracted. Define clear and specific results you would like to see from the data and then extract it, and avoid inexplicably finding yourself rolling the dice at the craps table.
Football coaches have come to realize it’s not all about size – agility is just as important. Like football coaches recruiting offensive linemen, leaders too need to understand that it’s easy to zealously collect data. It’s more difficult and critical to parse this data for valuable insights that will lead to actionable intelligence. So don’t get fat on big data. Avoid data obesity. Use data more wisely and make your organization healthier and more prosperous.
A former CEO of three successful tech startup companies and principal at consulting firm Future Point of View, Scott Klososky specializes in seeing beyond the horizon of how technology is changing the world. His unique perspectives on technology, business culture, and the future allow him to travel the globe as an international speaker, consultant, and author, working with senior execs in organizations ranging from the Fortune 500 to universities, nonprofits, and countless professional associations and coalitions.
