Jumping ahead: Why data literacy is a must for ASEAN professionals

Half a century ago, the ability to read and write was the most critical parameter to gauge professional success. Later it became financial discipline and intelligence - the most successful people utilised their resources – capital or human – wisely to extract the best possible value.

In this technology-driven age, where we are absolutely inundated by data, the factors which determine success are evolving yet again. With each and every aspect of our lives undergoing large-scale disruption, success in today’s business landscape will be determined by how data literate you are.

 Data literacy: An evolution of traditional parameters of success

As a Chartered Accountant by training, I have an inherent love for numbers. They have, in a way, become a core part of my DNA. Numbers have defined and guided my approach throughout my career. By making things measurable, numbers help businesses and professionals in calibrating themselves against the given median and objectively gauge their performance.

Data literacy is just a logical extension of this approach. It makes it possible to analyse the various tangible and intangible aspects of business operations by making them more measurable. Data also makes it possible to gain a better sense of where the organisation is and where it ought to be at any given instant, as well as to identify the best possible way to address the gap.

But why is it so important? The answer to that question, of course, is because most of our actions – as individuals and as professionals – are influenced by data today.

To understand what difference data literacy can make, I’ll an example from the everyday. If you’re reading this article, you’re most probably comfortable browsing online and are familiar with having 10 open tabs at some point or the other. Now, the intent with which you opened the first tab follows through to the second tab, and maybe extends to the third or the fourth tab. After that, chances are that the inherent nature of the web might lead you down a rabbit hole where, having started out wanting to check out movie trailers, you spend more than half an hour reading up about the origins of various cinematic techniques. While that information in itself is not without value, it does not in any way further your primary objective – that of determining which movie you want to watch during the weekend.

The same is the case with data. With so much information about anything and everything coming at  us from every corner, inundating and surrounding us, we need the capability to filter out the data noise and find a method within this madness. This is exactly what data literacy does. It empowers us with the ability to filter out the information that isn’t relevant to our objectives and focus on the data that is actually valuable. Data literacy isn’t about how BIG you can get with your data, but rather focuses how smartly the available data can be utilised to drive positive outcomes.

Being data literate can help you prioritise your data to generate sufficient, relevant, and timely insights, which will give your business an edge over your competition. It can help you in streamlining the process of data exploration without restricting it, while also giving you give visibility over possible data blind spots and pointing you in the direction of relevant information which you might have overlooked. Moreover, data literacy helps you to intuitively gauge what information is relevant to a particular objective and what isn’t, in addition to enabling you to really question the validity, veracity, and viability of the data that you have on your hands. This not only allows you to make swifter and more accurate decisions, but also to undertake a deeper and more contextual data exploration which has the potential to unlock more – and better – business value.

We are situated at the eye of a perfect storm, where everything around us is disruptive. IBM estimated, way back in 2016, that 2.5 quintillion bytes of data is generated globally on a daily basis. This massive volume of data is constantly being used to empower and enable our decision-making, be it via browsing through product reviews before making a purchase or gauging the preferences of the target audience before deploying a marketing initiative for our businesses. Data literacy, then, will play an extremely important part in this rapidly-evolving dynamic and will become a skill as fundamental as reading and writing to success in this digital-first era.