Hal Varian on how the Web challenges managers - The McKinsey Quarterly - Hal Varian web challenge managers - Strategy - Innovation

Hal Varian on how the Web challenges managers - The McKinsey Quarterly - Hal Varian web challenge managers - Strategy - Innovation

Herein I found yet another quote on the very important topic of data analysis for modern corporations. Hal Varian says "I keep saying the sexy job in the next ten years will be statisticians...The ability to take data—to be able to understand it, to process it, to extract value from it, to visualize it, to communicate it—that’s going to be a hugely important skill in the next decades, ... Because now we really do have essentially free and ubiquitous data. So the complimentary scarce factor is the ability to understand that data and extract value from it. "

Although data is free and ubiquitous, many corporations still do not have the habit of storing data about every aspect of their business. Businesses should start storing their history as accurately and completely as they possibly could: how much we invested in this campaign, where did we insert the add, how much more sales did we make because of it, how long did it take to close deals,...Evidence based and fact based management is becoming more important every day. So having the data to support decisions and the ability to interpret the data are becoming crucial assets to stay competitive. Start building your warehouse today and invest some effort in analyzing patterns that may not be visible at first sight. That is a secure source of competitive advantage for the future.