Every Business is Data Business
David A. Frankel ?? ?????
Commercial Growth Executive | Partnerships | GTM Strategy | General Manager | Sales | Marketing
Time to leverage your company's biggest untapped resource.
I originally wrote this article back in 2017. Astonishingly, it is even more relevant today. I was reminded about this earlier this week and thought I would update and re-share it for your consideration.
As I was scrolling through my LinkedIn timeline recently, I saw this interesting post from my colleague Daniel Eddy:
Truth be told, Daniel has been touting the benefits of his WHOOP wearable health and fitness monitor to anyone who would listen to him for months. It allows him to compile, track and understand the data his body is creating every minute of every day so he can live a healthier life.
As you can see from his post, Daniel was recently sick -- and the data his body created showed it. The analytics WHOOP provides allowed him to understand his current state and see what he might have done differently -- mainly, he realized he should have been better hydrated to given what his body was fighting.
Once upon a time, these types of wearable analytics were thought to be reserved for the select few, such as elite athletes, astronauts or active members of the military. However, whether it is a simple heart rate monitor, a Fitbit, a smartphone app or a WHOOP wearable, average people are now making a commitment to understanding the data that is a created as a byproduct of their activities can improve and optimize their daily performance.
People see the benefits of making more informed decisions on the data and taking preventative actions based on what is being reported: whether it is with nutrition choices, sleep habits, level of exertion during workouts, etc. In Daniel's case, this data also allowed him to recover quicker from his health setback.
So it should no longer be a mystery: we are all creating data all of the time.
Why is your business any different?
What does this mean to you and what you do to make a living?
Well, you know that business you have been spending precious time and effort building for 5, 10, 20, 30, 50 or maybe even 100 years? You know, the one that builds widgets or buildings or sells professional services or has killer technology or does something that's going to change the world or maybe something not even remotely close to any of that?
What would you say if I told you that this business is like Daniel? What if there was a resource, created even during times you may may not realize, that can dramatically improve efficiency, increase predictability, and help you make both your top line and bottom line numbers?every quarter?
As we saw above, this is not science fiction and it is not something that just elite companies do. What I am talking about may be the single BIGGEST product your company produces every single day just by simply existing. And it is available to every company, right now, if it is willing to make a true commitment to understanding how to structure it, analyze it and synthesize it to make better decisions.
Yes, every company produces something called?data and it is time for you and your company to stop talking about it and start leveraging it to improve predictability of your business and assist with recovery from setbacks. As someone who has spent almost 30 years in and around data and analytics businesses, I?assure?you: at this point, if you have no strategy in place, the train is leaving the station.
The Great Corporate Awakening
Smart companies, across all industries, are beginning to understand and embrace the use of their own data as an operating resource to manage risk. The days of the words "big data" and "AI" and "machine learning" being thrown around meeting rooms as a catch phrase to impress a boss, a board and your colleagues are over. You can no longer afford to make this a future project or capital investment you pursue later.
Originally driven by corporate boards, the C-suite (especially the chief financial officer and chief marketing officer) has been empowered by the increased availability of technological solutions to devote significant resources to harnessing data (structured and unstructured) on their operations, their customers, their sales activity, their markets, etc. in order to make more informed decisions. Talking in terms of dashboards, KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) and APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) has gone mainstream, as has developing metrics to determine how company resources are allocated and how to vastly improve customer experience.
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Some industries, like finance, have been quick to understand this can be a measurable competitive advantage. Others, like you are about see, are slowly getting around to it.
Just Waking Up: Lessons from the Construction Industry
After spending the majority of my career in financial intelligence and seeing how data and analytics has transformed institutional investing over the last 20-30 years, I found myself with an opportunity to move into construction and construction technology.
It's a multi-trillion dollar global industry, that, as of this writing, is about to get even bigger with the passing of a US infrastructure bill.
You would think an industry this massive would be at the bleeding edge of adopting technology, innovation, data and analytics. Think again.
In a space where meeting the expectations of the customer (the building owner) is crucial, the schedule means everything and margins, particularly when there are labor and supply chain issues, are thin, there are some sobering stats to consider about construction project delivery:
Source: studies from Edward Merrill Independent Project Analysis, CII, McKinsey, Deloitte, FMI and Navigant Construction Forum
Why does this occur? As the last bullet highlights, the industry has been slow to recognize, harness and leverage the data it creates throughout every operational stage of the design and construction process. Talk about "big data" and "AI" and "machine learning" for most firms seems aspirational at this point due to a lack of understanding and supportive culture.
There are companies out there, however, that are starting to get this idea and are embracing data as a way to improve certainty, collaboration and bring more predictable outcomes. Companies like Alberici-Flintco, Andres Construction, Boldt Construction, Jacobsen and Sundt Construction are a just small list of emerging leaders in the area of developing a "culture of predictable outcomes".
Another that goes beyond talk and immediately stands out with their thought leadership around the concept of "every business is a data business" is Suffolk Construction.
Suffolk recently launched a program called "Level Up with Data" -- an internal initiative to educate it's employees on the the power of data driven decision making.
In a global industry that still largely relies on paper, sticky notes and unstructured, messy, hard to track information to drive multi-million dollar projects, Suffolk is fully embracing the idea that "data is everywhere." They know that with a culture that values data that is structured at each point of creation, they can be more profitable, more certain with their project outcomes and recover faster when setbacks occur. Data is the resource that can dramatically improve efficiency, increase predictability, and help them make both their top line and bottom line numbers?every quarter.
Suffolk really isn't any different than other construction companies in the construction industry. They are just awake. Suffolk understands every business is a data business.
Conclusion
Whether it is my colleague Daniel Eddy thinking about how to live a healthier life, or the average company seeking to improve productivity and get to the next level, or slow to evolve industries like construction that rely on old ways and processes because change may be hard, one thing is constant: they are all creating data. The key to unlocking the value in that resource requires a belief and wholesale commitment to the idea that "every business is a data business," over coming the fear of change in process and approach, and partnering with tools, solutions, people and technologies that understand that as well.