Breaking the Chains (and Threats) to Unleash the Power of Big Data (Part Two)

Scottsdale, AZ—In part two of Joseph Bradley’s presentation on big data during the Executive Connection Summit, Cisco’s vice president, Internet of Things, discusses business disruptions by threats emanating from outside the industry. He then offers a list of five actions businesses can take to better leverage the value of big data and make IT projects more fruitful. You can check out part one here.

Joseph Bradley, Cisco

Insight. Bradley called insight the currency of the 21^st century. How does one drive insight, how does one collect and gather that information? How do you make value? Bradley defined digital as how one connects to and captures value from the physical world. That, he said, is what big data is trying to solve. And the bigger question is, “how do I make you smarter, how do we capture value from that physical world?”

As an illustration, Bradley cited a work published by Cisco titled Digital Vortex. In regards to disruption, a vortex draws elements to the center, and the industries in the center of that vortex will experience the most disruption by connecting to and capturing value from the physical world. Asset-heavy industries are in the outer realm of the vortex, and the disruptors tend to draw from the center, where the low-hanging fruit reside (the transportation technology Uber is a prime example). A company like Amazon, which boasts an incredible supply-chain distribution system yet lacks vertical definition, is a shining example of what connecting to and capturing value from assets can provide. Thus, it is important to budget business in terms of capabilities, not verticals.

Bradley then provided some sobering statistics about the realities of disruption. Two-thirds of CEOs polled said they were facing more threats today than ever before, and the disruptions come from outside of the industry. Digital Vortex asked 1,000 business professionals how long it would take for them to experience market disruption, and they answered an average of three years. In that time, four out of the top 10 incumbents will be displaced, and 41 percent will come from outside threats. Yet only 25 percent claimed to be doing something about it.

Bradley referenced a study called Stall Points, which noted that 87 percent of Global 100 companies have hit a stall point, a major downturn in revenue. When this happens, more than 90 percent of firms lose more than half of their market value. The average drop is 74 percent, with 50 percent executive turnover.

This is where big data comes in. Bradley gave a quick, humorous overview of the “five Vs of big data” (volume, velocity, variety, veracity and value) but cut to the chase with his own talking points: If your assets could talk, what would they say? The key is asking “where am I, how am I doing and how will I be in the future.”

One of the critical stumbling points is that 75 percent of IT projects fail, which flies in the face of big data’s value. How can big data provide that insight and answer Bradley’s three questions with that poor of a success rate? Accountability is key, and he provided a list of five actions to help solve the problem and become an insight-driven company.

1. Identify your listening sources. What are they (human intuition, ERP, social media, economic indicators) and why do they merit consideration? One pitfall of human nature is that we tend to listen to people who will agree with us. Track these sources, make note of them and Bradley notes you will find “you’re betting your existence on two or three sources only.”
2. What are the dark assets? If you feel you don’t have enough information regarding what your people are doing, what are some assets that are not connected that you can seize upon and capture value from?
3. No accountability. It is important to embrace shared risk. Big data reduces the amount of uncertainty in decision making. More information equates better decision making. “Use big data and analytics, then crunch the insight,” he said. “That means I reduce risk. I have a better chance of saying if I do this, then this will happen. Cause and effect. If you know it, prove it.”
4. Innovate outside the four walls of your company. Instead of trying to hire expensive data specialists, rely on third-party providers such as Kaggle or Upwork. It’s about exporting a problem in a way someone else can solve it, thereby dynamically allocating resources and adding value to your company.
5. Take action against your blind spots. What are the back-door threats that could disrupt your business? But it’s not just from a security standpoint. Bradley established a Red Team, with members specializing in sales, finances and engineering, that is tasked with figuring out how to put his company out of business in 90 days. It’s the football equivalent of a scout team trying to exploit your organization’s weaknesses. “You will never find your blind spots without people working on them,” he said.

Bradley concluded his presentation by counting to 10, noting that within the span, a child died due to malnutrition. In a world where big data offers unlimited potential, it is problems such as this that have real-world potential for solving.

“This is a great time to be in technology,” he said. “This is a great time in history, and we can solve problems that we’ve only dreamed about. But don’t worry about what you don’t know. I want you to challenge, each and every day, what you believe to be true.”