Thriving in a Big Data World

摘要

The author reviews three recent books: Big Data: A Revolution That Will Transform How We Live, Work, and Think by Viktor Mayer-Schonberger and Kenneth Cukier; Predictive Analytics: The Power to Predict Who Will Click, Buy, Lie, or Die by Eric Siegel; and Keeping Up with the Quants: Your Guide to Understanding and Using Analytics by Thomas H. Davenport and Jinho Kim. The first two books primarily focus on the power of big data and quantitative analytics, and the third advises how companies can tap into that power. Together, the combination of description and advice provide a good primer for executives seeking a better understanding of this emerging era of sophisticated number-crunching. According to SiegePs estimate, we are adding 2.5 quintillion bytes of data every single day. Words have become data; the physical states of our machinery have become data; our physical locations have become data; and even our interactions with each other have become data. "Data can frequently be collected passively, without much effort or even awareness on the part of those being recorded. And because the cost of storage has fallen so much, it is easier to justify keeping data than discarding it," observe Mayer-Schonberger and Cukier. Indeed, we are awash in information, but what does it all mean? In their book, Mayer-Schonberger and Cukier explain three new imperatives: 1. Use all the data, not just a sample. In the past, businesses did not have the economical means to capture, store and analyze all the data from their operations, so they had to settle for a sample of it. But now a company like Amazon can economically capture and store data from every single customer transaction. 2. Accept messiness. Inaccuracies in measurements are less harmful than they once were because they can often be smoothed over by the sheer quantity of data. In the authors' words, "more trumps better." 3. Embrace correlation. For many purposes, correlation is sufficient and people don't need to know causality. Quantifying the likelihood that a particular person will do something - whether it is defaulting on a loan, upgrading to a higher level of cable service or seeking another job - is at the heart of Siegel's Predictive Analytics. The author describes how quantitative techniques can be deployed to find valuable patterns in data, enabling companies to predict the likely behavior of customers, employees and others. Even a modest increase in the accuracy of predictions can often result in substantial savings. Executives must go far beyond the "gee whiz" fascination with big data and quantitative techniques to learn how their businesses can profit best from this new era of computational sophistication. For that journey, Keeping Up with the Quants is a basic guide. Authors Davenport and Kim provide a logical approach for helping executives think more like quantitative analysts.