Data is Not The New Oil, It's Something Different Entirely
Data is Not "The New Oil", It's Something Different Entirely
I always hated this analogy to be honest. The "new oil" implies that it's something you can just pay someone else to go and get extract, and then give you to use. That's like saying the average consumer could put a barrel of sweet crude oil in their car. You could, but it wouldn't run very far.
Data is something different. It's more like a broader organizational competency which is equal parts strategy and execution.
On the strategic side, you need to understand what your goals are, and how data will actually help you make better and faster decisions, or broadly enable efficiency, reduction of output variance, speed to market, etc. This includes both people using data and systems using data.
On the execution side, data is even trickier than this. It requires ownership, acquisition, normalization, transformation, analysis, visualization, and quality control. You need a focused organization tasked with these functions to enable the business to move faster and smarter.
That data team needs to work across the company to achieve results, in all parts of this process.
Existing strategic planning and financial analysis need to be reimagined to be performed in real-time, rather than every 3, 6 or 12 months -- across all departments.
One consistent challenge I see in organizations with this transformation? The lack of "translators" between business and technology. Business people understand their domain and market, but not the "art of the possible." Technologists can evaluate platforms, but don't understand the business enough to help draw out the right solutions.
This requires translators -- usually people called data analysts or product managers -- that sit in between the technology teams and the business users in order to envision and creatively build the future data strategy and execution for the company. It's critical for these translators to sit within the data organization because they are guiding the entire organization's approach, and can see the same patterns happening across the company. Often they are organized by stakeholder or department, but live within the data team natively.
