In a climate bloated with information, making thoughtful and accurate decisions can be challenging. Have you ever kept your Twitter feed open for a bit and watched the new tweets compound minute after minute?
It’s enough to make you want to run back — fast — to ancient times, like 1993.
Multiply your one feed by a factor of say, a gazillion, and you’re scratching the surface of big data.
Thankfully, smart people in coffee houses and board rooms in hip places like Silicon Valley and Austin recognize that data is now a permanent fixture in our economic landscape and can provide tremendous insights into human [read: consumer] behavior. These brilliant minds have imagined and then launched solutions to relieve companies of data overwhelm so that decisions can be made about next stages for innovation and growth without losing our minds in the process.
The challenge with this new way of thinking is beliefs are developing about what’s true about data without having all the facts first. As with any major cultural shift in its infancy, the pendulum has swung too far to one side for being “data driven.”
One such [dangerous] belief is that data is the end all be all for decision making. The thinking goes, “We don’t need to worry about XY or Z anymore. We’ve got big data doing all the heavy lifting for us. Data gives us all the answers.”
Indeed, being seen as “data driven” in business these days has developed a coolness factor that is hard to resist. Akin to rolling up to the V.I.P. club in a black Escalade with the hot new pop star or athlete in tow, it’s super alluring and sexy. It generates bragging rights.
But be careful. Mr or Ms Flavor of the Month has yet to prove their long-term staying power and could easily end up being the first ones the bouncers toss out of the club for taking things a little too far.
