Data data data - it's everywhere and as the title of Eric Kavanagh's DM Radio Podcast proclaims --> "Bigger and Wilder? The data Is Everywhere"
Eric Kavanagh and I met years ago, and have worked in the same industry for well over 20 years. I have been a guest on DM Radio before but this time was different. This time it was all about introducing our CEO Whitney Myers and showing off with some wonderful data-driven things done at Zuar.
Eric is a great host because he himself is a data lover. And considering that his show is the longest running data driven Podcast out there, he's had many years to attain near perfection! I love talking with him and as you can tell, the passion is obvious when you hear us speak.
Eric started us off with one of his wonderful introductory stories about data. Eric stated "If you look at the biggest, most innovative companies, the ones that are really taking off these days, every one of them has data as a core component of their DNA. In fact, the other day I just said to myself that, 'Data is now the D in enterprise DNA.' Whatever your company is, the data is what tells the story. It's what is used. It's fuel. Sometimes people call it oil, but oil does have to be refined, so that metaphor holds quite well because you have to refine oil to get it in a usable condition, and the same goes for data."
After my introduction, I elaborated on my career in data, "I started out in 1998, there was a mainframe and SAS. As always collecting data is a very strategic part of the business, and as the business grows, so does the value of that data, as you were alluding to, but only if you're using it correctly. Now, we work with terabytes of data, and it's done very quickly, so thanks to NVIDIA and all these great chips that have been created. We're really doing remarkable as far as speed, but what we haven't been able to get up to speed with is the talent. You hear a lot about, 'We can't find a data scientist. We can't find developers. We can't find data engineers.' THIS is when it may be necessary to reach out to that third-party company like Zuar. If you don't have the ability to query company-wide, if you don't know what each department is doing then you are wasting time and money"
Whitney is introduced, and relates her response to comments made about time to complete a successful project: "We're not going to sacrifice direction for perfection!" Fantastic quote by our CEO, Whitney had some other great information for the viewers and listeners as well.
