Yes, we all agree: the ever-accelerating economy through research, innovation, supply, demand, knowledge, and consumer habits inevitably leads to an explosion in the volume of data within our companies.
Shareholders, decision-makers, marketing – all these departments and individuals need this data. This data constitutes information. Information becomes power. Power to define a strategy, challenges for a company operating in a highly competitive ecosystem - and this applies regardless of the industry or geographical areas in which it operates.
Information describes a company's clients, the services or products it offers, the social, economic, political, and environmental environment in which it operates. All this represents the dimensions we can attribute to information. When this information materializes and is expressed, we are dealing with reality but also imagination. It is at this point that we realize the volume of data needed, which, if of quality, enhances a company's informational assets.
We are not talking here about startups for whom data was already ingrained from the start... No, we are talking about companies that have been the cornerstone of our global social and economic system for several decades, if not centuries. Some systemic companies have not taken or cannot take the turn. A turn that requires a trajectory towards mastering its informational assets. A turn that makes the volume of data visible. This reality is intimidating...
This reality is intimidating because this volume is an unknown. The unknown in all its glory: we don't know what we're talking about, everyone can have their opinion, and even once the first stone is laid, no one really knows how to build the structure. The IT Consulting and Software Market has positioned itself: Big Data tools, Data Science professions, methods, etc. But again, these disciplines are new and therefore unknown to the companies in question.
The reality imposed by the volume of data and the influx of providers in this new market is perceived as a tsunami by the people who make up these companies.
Once again, the system and people are at odds. So, listen up! No matter what we can offer our companies, it is the people who make them up who have the solution: be vigilant, be curious, be open to others to share their challenges; break down walls, open doors and communicate, share expertise, ambitions; be transparent and share fears, risks; be proactive and propose, share simple and intelligent solutions. These are values that exist in humans, but they must be deployed on a new axis, a new perspective: data.
Human Resources Departments have a role to play here: if a company encounters such issues (knowing its clients better to deploy new offers, mastering the quality of its data to avoid administrative, fiscal, or regulatory sanctions, etc.), then shouldn't data be a skill? Shouldn't this skill be included in a job description, a mission statement? Wouldn't these challenges benefit from training, change management? Would such a mission that a company sets for itself not require it to adapt its organization? These are all questions that HR departments should consider.
When people are ready, then companies will be ready, and the market will thrive.