FOCUS FEATURE
DATA
D-Day Data for
Whether you embrace it or view with suspicion, one thing is certain – you can’t afford to ignore data. With GDPR weeks away, Business Network Editor Nathan Fearn looks at whether data can ever truly be embraced by business as a force for good.
“You can’t manage what you don’t measure” is a quote attributed to a few leading lights in the business community including, among others, W. Edwards Deming, renowned statistician, and Peter Drucker, respected leadership and management expert. Wherever it originated, it’s a statement that has been
taken on board and then some in recent years. These days, arguably more than ever before, the notion of obtaining information – data – and acting on it resonates through all areas of life; none more so than business. Stripped back to its simplest form, Mike Loukides, Vice
President of internationally-renowned O’Reilly Media, puts it succinctly yet effectively when he states that: “Data scientists are involved with gathering data, massaging it into a tractable form, making it tell its story, and presenting that story to others”. Data is clearly not a modern phenomenon and if you
were to take a look back at the history of data collection, analysis and use, you suspect it has been used in various guises since time immemorial. But things have definitely changed in the 21st Century.
Data is now Big Data and its evolution, its possibilities and its dangers have shifted beyond recognition, and forever. Data is now a complex beast, an unstoppable juggernaut.
It’s no longer a process, a means to an end, it’s all- encompassing. Naturally, its evolution and the breath- taking speed of its development has caused it to be revered and feared in equal measures – friend to some, foe to others in both our personal and professional lives. Writing for this publication in December, Bretton Jones,
a digital business adviser with over 30 years’ experience in digital technology as a consultant and practitioner, working for IBM, Microsoft and Vodafone among others, argued that the sea change in the amount of data being generated is overwhelmingly the result of significant developments in
54 business network May 2018
‘Data is the fuel of the digital age. Business data can identify opportunities for new revenue streams and markets, often in places and markets never before accessible’
digital technology – leading many to argue we’re now in the midst of a digital revolution. “This carries its own challenges,” argued Bretton. “Data is the fuel of the digital age. Business data can
identify opportunities for new revenue streams and markets, often in places and markets never before accessible. Social media opens new marketing channels and better analytical tools can help identify the most appropriate or profitable channels to meet your customers’ stated needs, preferences and desires. Get it right and the potential is limitless. Get it wrong and the potential for disaster is equally so.” Again, we get a sense of an uneasy relationship between
business and data. Can’t live with it, can’t live without it is a bit easy, but you get the picture. So already we get to the crux of the matter. Looking
from a business perspective – specifically in relation to aiding business growth – is data, in its current and future guises, generally a force for good or bad. Friend, or foe? You can certainly make a case for the latter. If we take it
as read that data is used in some capacity across the business spectrum – information on employees, payroll details etc – you’re then left, if you’re not a Big Data connoisseur, with the big unknown – and there are plenty of high profile examples of why data should be approached with caution. You would have to have been living under a rock to have missed the significant fallout from alleged improper and unethical uses of data from some of the world’s most recognised brands in recent months – the data
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