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Theme that emerged in this week’s email is … Every company is a data company.
Quotes
“At the end of the day, the explosion of new data tools and practices converges to solving a persistent problem: data management, working better together, and providing value. This area will dramatically improve in the coming years.“ - Thalia Barrera, Airbyte
“If we have data, let’s look at data. If all we have are opinions, let’s go with mine.” – Jim Barksdale, former Netscape CEO
News Articles
Podcasts
Cool Charts
Final Thoughts (Happy Thanksgiving!)
Appendix
#1 – Shane Murray from Monte Carlo published How Data and Finance Teams Can Be Friends (And Stop Being Frenemies). November 2022.
My Take: This article reinforces the importance of domain knowledge. Talk to the business user and understand the problem we are all trying to solve. It is not enough to do cool things, there must be a use case. Listen, then deliver. Accuracy > timeliness. Consistency > speed. Do these things and data people will make friends in finance & all over the organization.
#2 – Airops published Data Demystified, Part 1: Getting started with data analytics & business Intelligence. September 2022.
My Take: The first in a series of articles. The article runs through 7-steps to making “getting started” happen the right way. Step 2 “Be a champion of data hygiene” resonated with me as this is key to getting & keeping early momentum. There are steps you can & should take early in the process to do this right. Early investment in good data is not sexy & takes time, but will pay dividends down the road. Find Part 2 here. Find part 3 here. Find part 4 here.
#3 – Stratably shared Digital Expertise on Boards Slowly Improving. November 2022.
My Take: Every company is a data company. We are seeing more Fortune 500 companies recognize the importance of digital/data/tech skill at the board level. Stratably has been thought leader in this arena and should be watched closely for further development. As yes another recent example, see Third Point’s agitation for Disney to add tech experience to board.
#4 - Thalia Barrera from Airbyte published The Evolution of The Data Engineer: A Look at The Past, Present & Future. October 2022.
My Take: Thalia offers us a good big picture look at the data engineering landscape. Bottom line for me, there is A LOT of data & we are very early when it comes to driving value from the masses of data. As tools improve, roles will change, value will increase, and reliance on data will increase (and this is good for everyone!).
BONUS: Coatue’s 56-slide deck on Fintech and the Pursuit of the Prize: Who Stands to Win Over the Next Decade?. October 2022.
BONUS 2: Alex Izydorczyk’s SimCity & Data Commons. November 2022.
BONUS 3: Ela Hunter’s To Bet or Not to Bet on Quantum Computing? November 2022.
#1 – Emerj CEO Daniel Faggella of the AI in Business Podcast published Follow These Steps Before Deploying Enterprise AI - with SymphonyAI CEO Sanjay Dhawan. November 2022.
My Take: First time I’ve written about this podcast. Really liked this interview. Sanjay Dhawan drives home the importance of good decisions (early, & very specific) about data strategy, data workflow, defining your desired business outcomes, & steps to build the data culture. The importance of good decisions up front is echoed in the Airops blog post above.
Highlights (29-minute run time):
Minute 03:45 – interview starts; setting the table for AI projects
Minute 06:45 – cultural factors that set companies up to succeed; real-time, actionable, insights
Minute 10:00 – answer “how” the data will flow
Minute 12:15 – start with the outcomes; then understand what data you need for those outcomes
Minute 14:15 – importance of the leadership team thinking about the outcomes & data strategy
Minute 16:00 – setting ourselves up for success; picking projects where AI might be a good fit
Minute 21:30 – focused business issues you are trying to solve; what does the workflow look like
Minute 27:00 – targeted outcomes & adoption cycle
Source: Stratably’s Digital Expertise on Boards Slowly Improving. November 2022. See article summarized above.
BONUS: Cool World Population Visualization:
Source: It was Thanksgiving in the US yesterday (Thursday November 24th).
This offers us a wonderful time to step back and recognize how lucky we are.
This article is a few years old, but the good news continues.
People are living longer, healthier lives
Fewer people are dying in wars
Fewer people are hungry
There is abundant opportunity
There is no such thing as perfect, but this time & this place, is pretty damn good.
Happy Thanksgiving!