I have just finished a book called Outside Insight. It was published earlier this year and is written by the co-founder of a notable media intelligence firm called Meltwater.
I also read a report from a consultancy firm this week that urged companies to “leverage the power of advanced data analytics”. There’s a lot of this sort of talk out there, particularly from the advisory sector. Everyone I talk to at the moment is excited about the idea that analytics is going to give us pretty pictures that help us do our job better, with more insights. We all know that digital data is everywhere and we all know it’s a treasure trove. If only we had the darn map.
I was rather hoping, giving the author’s esteemed pedigree as a subject matter expert in this space, running a successful firm in this emerging industry (since 2001), that he would provide me with some insights on how to find that treasure of Outside Insights. It all looked so promising from the title. But I think there’s some sort of an adage about books and covers the truth of which I might have done well to heed.
It’s not a bad book. Although it was a little repetitive. Okay, it was a lot repetitive. And he took an awfully long time to get to his point. He kept telling me he was going to tell me what the point was and then kept delaying doing it. I felt it warranted a slightly more forceful editor and a considerably less indulgent waffle. Still, the man obviously knows his area quite well, despite my grumbles.
I learned one major thing. One, contemporary, expert-practitioner opined thing:
“Outside Insight is in its infancy today.”
I do think author knows what he’s talking about so I place a lot of stead in his statements that, although the immense promise is there, and that it will be an area that changes business and how we operate profoundly, it’s still very early days. That’s been helpful to me. I now know that we are still looking for the treasure and its associated map.
So the next time you read advice to “leverage the power of advanced data analytics”, ask the authors to show you a demonstration of what they mean. Real time. Chances are, it’s hot-air fired.