Starting A Big-Data Analytics Practice? Answer These Questions First

Are you a business owner who is wondering how can Analytics / Big data help me out? Or you are convinced that data mining can add value, but clueless about next steps? or have you attended multiple conferences under the headline of big data, but still have little idea about how to start it in your own Organization?

First of all, don’t be dis-heartened, you are not alone! Multiple surveys have shown that while there is a lot of talk on big data, only a few people are actually working on it.

This article lays out 5 questions every business head should answer before starting this journey. These questions are not a solution to your technical questions related to big data and would not provide you a remedy to all your questions but they will provide you enough stimulation to challenge and really understand the core of big data analytics proposition for you.

This might sound a really silly question to start with, but this is most powerful one as well. You need to look for an answer beyond your BAU business model. Let me give you a real life example to try and explain what I mean.

What business is McDonald’s in? If you said selling fast food, you’d be wrong. In 1974, Ray Kroc, the man who started the golden arch empire asked an MBA class at the University of Texas, Austin this same question. Of course, everyone said hamburgers. Kroc’s answer surprised everyone: he said he was in the real estate business.

Here’s the way he explained it: his primary business focus was to sell franchises of the restaurant. He knew, however that real estate and location were the most important factors of success for each franchise. A poorly placed restaurant would go broke. McDonald’s is now the single largest owner of real estate in the world.

Here is food for some more thought. List out what you think each of the business is in:

Look for an answer beyond the obvious. Netflix is not in business of renting out / streaming movies, it is in business of understanding viewing habits of people. Similarly, Coursera is in business of understanding learning behaviour of people.

So, now again, Which business are you in?

In answering so, you might figure out that the real differentiator to your business is different from the traditional business model you had in your mind.

In today’s landscape, a credit card provider is not in a business of a Financial risk management. It is important, but its true business is likely to be understanding consumer spending.