Challenges and Opportunities Confront the Data-Driven Business

Most companies capture a small fraction of their data’s value

It’s often been said that truly transformative innovations are overhyped in the short term but under-hyped in the long term. Think of electricity and automobiles, the internet more recently and now big data.

When first developed in the late 19th century, electricity was mostly used to replace kerosene lamps and candles with light bulbs. It took several decades for electric appliances, the assembly line and mass production to emerge and help create whole new industries. Similarly, the full impact of automobiles was not felt until the mid-20th century with the rise of suburbs, the Interstate Highway system, and the motels, restaurants and gas stations that sprung up all around them.

 .. In 2000, only one-quarter of the world’s stored information was digital and thus subject to search and analysis. Since then, the amount of digital data has been doubling roughly every three years. By now only a small amount of all stored information isn’t digital, around 1% or so. This could not have possibly happened without the digital revolution
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  • Micro-segmenting a population based on individuals’ characteristics as revealed by data and analytics;