In this issue:
- In Our Opinion: Where Is (Big) Data Heading?
- Blog Roundup:
- Blog: Meet The 2014 Marketing EDGE Rising Stars
- Career Opportunities:
- Chief Lending Officer – NEW
- VP, Digital Marketing – Global Financial Services – NEW
- Global Marketing Technology Strategist
- Global Head of Branding & Communications
In Our Opinion by Jeff Gundersen & Lola White
Where Is (Big) Data Heading?
In last month’s issue, we addressed the topic, Where is Digital Heading? and we reported to 25%+ of the top 100 global marketers will hire a Chief Digital Officer by the end of 2014.
This month’s topic is “Where is Big Data Heading?” and we see big data only getting bigger as large, global enterprises are challenged to harness prolific amounts of data in order to create new business opportunities, innovative new products and services, and deliver better customer engagement/experience. According to a recent study by Deloitte Consulting LLP, “in the last 5 years, as companies became aware of the value of data as an enterprise asset, the management of data has become more visible and crucial.”
And this is not just customer data, it’s all kinds of data including employee data…hiring, performance, retention data. Jane Griffin, a Principal at Deloitte, sums it up as follows, “Companies must better define strategic priorities for management and delivery of data, identify new business opportunities through analysis of data, and significantly improve revenue generation through effective use of enterprise data. It’s crucial to have a C-level person responsible for crafting and implementing data strategies, standards, procedures, and accountability policies at an enterprise level.”
Forrester agrees big data offers big business opportunities…”The attention on information comes from all the rich new data that simply did not exist before; sensor data from the internet of all things; social media, process data, resulting from the digitization of everything. Add to this technology the ability to handle big data in reasonable timeframes, user friendly mobile computing in the form of tablets, data virtualization software and data warehouse applications that significantly accelerate analysis, and predictive analytics, and there is plenty of cause for an information renaissance.”
We are seeing signs of this new information age everywhere — first and foremost through the eyes of Google — the #1 market capitalization company in the world…and they are only a teenager in terms of how long they have been in existence. Google is digitizing everything…and created a search (near) monopoly with imbedded digital and mobile advertising, which will assure its growth and success for the next few decades at a minimum.
Amazon is not far behind. They recently beat out legacy technology laggard IBM in winning a $600M+ 10-year contract with the Defense Department…really? Could this be true? Isn’t Amazon the company that ships books and other merchandise to consumers? Amazon is exploiting their “state of the art” cloud technology capabilities to expand into Federal Government and other commercial business sectors…leaving companies like IBM in the dust behind them…and the Federal government paid a premium (+30% higher price compared to IBM’s bid). How’s that for building a premier brand!
Large companies are paying attention. Wells Fargo, the best-run US bank, recently hired A. Charles Thomas from USAA as its first-ever Chief Data Officer at an enterprise-wide level. On this hire, Kevin Rhein (CIO and Thomas’ boss) commented, “Wells Fargo considers data management one of its technology priorities and with the emergence of new technologies and the exponential growth of data, we believe it represents a tremendous opportunity to use data in ways we’ve never been able to before.”
That sums it up very well. The leading companies of the future in each business sector will be Google-like and Amazon-like…digitizing and analyzing data in real-time to deliver relevant and timely communications, products and services to their existing customers and best prospects.
Where do you stand on big data? Where is your big data heading? Are you an Amazon or an IBM?
We want to know
As always, we value and appreciate you input. Connect with us — we want to hear your experiences and opinions.
Lola and Jeff
BLOG Roundup: Did you catch our recent blog posts?
Meet The 2014 Marketing EDGE Rising Stars
As an executive search and consulting firm positioned at the cutting-edge of marketing transformation and development, we continuously stay connected to the “next generation” marketing leaders who are changing the landscape of “best practices” in customer acquisition, engagement, retention, and loyalty/advocacy. One of our favorite events to find this talent is at the annual Marketing EDGE “Rising Stars Awards Dinner” which happened Tuesday night June 3rd in NYC.
Not surprisingly, this year’s best and brightest under 40YO come from backgrounds focused on new technologies, international/global markets, content strategies, social networks/business, and data analytics. We are pleased to offer a summary of the 2014 award recipients:
Career Opportunities
Chief Lending Officer – NEW
VP, Digital Marketing – Global Financial Services – NEW
Global Marketing Technology Strategist
Global Head of Branding & Communications
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