Thanks for being here!
Announcement(s):
I will be in Miami for BattleFin Discovery Day Conference Jan 25-26-27. Let me know if you will be there! Not to late to sign up using this link. Strong agenda.
Lastly … and this is BIG NEWS … our transaction data is now available at more granular “row level”.
Contact me to learn more.
Theme that emerged in this week’s email is seeing more execs thinking about RODA (Return on Data Assets).
QUOTES
“You often times read that data is the new oil, that data will be the most valuable resource on earth. It's fundamentally not true. It's the data refinery, just like it's the oil refinery, that gives oil the value. We all have data, we all have a ton of data. The difficult part is to try to refine the data and then say something that's reasonable that makes a customer experience work and improve. … We need to be good little refiners to actually drive business decisions.”
News Articles
Podcasts
Cool Charts
Final Thoughts (The World is Getting Better)
Appendix
#1 – Gina Acosta of Progressive Grocer published Walmart Details Future of Grocery at CES. January 2023. (h/t Jeremy Baksht)
My Take: Wal-Mart’s three pronged omni approach to how it views the path forward for food retail is anchored in data. They will lead the way. This “omni” approach is wide ranging, from ad-tracking (i.e. partnership with ROKU), to AI helping store associates serve customers more effectively, and becoming a leader in social commerce.
#2 – McKinsey published How Lego plays with data: An interview with chief data officer Orlando Machado. December 2022.
My Take: Lego is just getting started with data & perhaps a good example of where most companies are at the current moment. From Orlando Machado, Chief Data Officer of Lego Group: “We’re helping a number of our business intelligence and analytics teams work closely with the central data office to establish these new ways of working, whether that’s about using our technology or our services or about upskilling and education. We are starting with some slightly more data-savvy audiences, typically people who are in business intelligence or analytics functions. But the aim is to reach everyone.”
#3 – Eon Retief of Databricks published Return on data assets: A new way for leaders to think about data and the balance sheet. December 2022.
My Take: RODA (Return on Data Assets). The author cites two main reasons data is not recorded as an asset on balance sheets, first, “current practices introduce certain practical inefficiencies”, and second, “a lack of ability to establish a direct link between data and measured business outcomes”.
We remain a long way from having data recognized as an asset on balance sheets in common practice, but discussions such as this open eyes to the unrecognized value of corporate data assets.
BONUS: Part 2 of 2 of Mehdio’s 10 Lessons Learned In 10 Years Of Data. January 2023. I mentioned his Part 1 in Alt Data Weekly #115.
BONUS 2: Benn.Stancil published Math is overrated. January 2023.
#1 – Refinitiv’s Hedge Fund Huddle Podcast interviews Tim Harrington, co-founder & CEO of BattleFin and Stewart Stimson, head of data strategy at Jump Trading. Alternative data explosion. January 2023.
My Take: I’ll be attending the Miami BattleFin conference January 25-26. This is a good overview from two people that have been in the alternative data space for a long time (perhaps longer than anyone?). Of most interest to me was the discussion around the growth of platforms & benefits of building a mosaic from multiple data sources (minute 17:00).
Highlights (32-minute run time):
Minute 01:00 – Tim Harrington intro & background
Minute 03:00 – Stewart Stimson intro & background
Minute 04:30 – Tim on how the alt data world has evolved & changed over the past 10-15 years
Minute 10:00 – Stewart on his long experience with alternative data
Minute 14:30 – the advent of data platforms and how that widens the potential audience
Minute 17:00 – building the mosaic from multiple data sources
Minute 21:30 – opportunity in the corporate market
Minute 23:00 – wide & deep data vs narrow & shallow data; consolidation in data vendor space
Minute 24:00 – discussion of regulatory issues
Minute 27:00 – how AI is fitting into this process
Minute 28:30 – how does the average consumer get access to this data? 90 West has more coming soon in this regard! Stay tuned.
Source: The Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco published 2022 Findings from the Diary of Consumer Payment Choice. May 2022.
The debit/credit card spread has narrowed since 2019. As of 2021 debit/credit card use was close to evenly split.
Cash has lost share:
Debit remains preferred for in-person payments:
Debit is used more by lower income bracket:
Good news happens slowly.
It is easy to get caught up in the latest crisis: Global warming; The lingering effects of Covid; The war in Ukraine; Classified documents in the wrong hands; Chaos at the border.
If you listen to the nightly news for 20 minutes you’d think we were living in a wasteland. It is enough to make you depressed.
Don't be fooled. We are living during wonderful times. There has never been a better time to be alive.
Understand that good news often happens slowly & we are impatient.
More people than ever have access to education.
Human health is better.
Child mortality has vastly improved.
More people are living in democracy.
More people have more resources (money, plentiful food, clean water, healthcare).
The world is generally at peace.
Zoom out. The picture gets better.
BONUS: Care of Mehdio's Tech (Data) Corner: