Photos courtesy Idaho National Laboratory and Beraldo Leal via Flickr

By Thornton May
Futurist, Senior Advisor with GP, Executive Director & Dean - IT Leadership Academy

Fifteen years ago venture capitalists [VCs] sought to convince the world that the time had come for digital groceries. With much pomp and circumstance George Shaheen, the alpha-technologist at the über-integrator [Anderson Consulting] switched teams. Mr. Shaheen jumped ship, departing the old world of atoms for the new and much more lucrative world of bits. Three years and more than $800 million dollars later, the co-poster-child of overfunded ideas – the Webvan Group – filed for bankruptcy and ceased operations. [The other poster child was Pets.com]. VCs are a persistent bunch. They are back touting a spectrum of online delivery services “whose time has come.” The question I have is – if executives had applied analytics effectively – “if we had done analytics right” – would we have been able to avoid these value destroying debacles?

In the geopolitical arena I ask the same question - “if we had done analytics right” – would we have been able to avoid waging the longest war in American history  - the Iraq portion of this conflict - according to the Costs of War Project by the Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University has cost $1.7 trillion with an additional $490 billion in benefits owed to war veterans, expenses that could grow to more than $6 trillion over the next four decades counting interest.

In the financial arena - “if we had done analytics right” – could we have avoided the 2008/2009 Great Recession?

What Does It Mean to Do Analytics Right?
In your organization is the prevailing mindset to treat “data” an asset or as a liability? Some organizations view data purely from a transactional and compliance standpoint. They keep what the law says they have to keep. The rest – as soon as it has performed its transactional purpose - is expunged from the enterprise never to pose a litigational threat again.

On the other hand there are those who advocate keeping all data. You never know what nuggets of insight lie waiting in all the data that flows into the enterprise. Data of limited use to you might be very useful and thus valuable to another enterprise. How does your organization strike a balance between monetizing data and removing data?

A new wrinkle in our migration to a data-rich and heavily analyzed world is the question of who actually owns the data? General Electric is ahead of the curve in this regard. They have data-sensitized their commercial practices such that approved and sanctioned use, rights and permissions to data are unambiguous. Restrictions on how you can use what data are pre-specified.

This is Step One in doing analytics right. Understand your data rights.

Some questions you will need answers to include:

• How is the data collected?
• What type of data is collected?
• Is the data coming from outside the U.S.?
• Are we a regulated entity (e.g., healthcare provider, financial institution, etc.)?
• What does our Privacy Notice say?
• Was consent obtained from individuals?
• If de-identified data is being used, how is de-identification being accomplished and is it in accordance with applicable law?
• What do our contracts provide about data use and monetization?
• How and where is the data stored?
• What purpose do you want to use or disclose the data for?
• Do we have cyber, privacy and breach notification policies and procedures in place?
• Are we periodically conducting risk assessments related to data?
• Will we receive any remuneration for the data?