Find out where your industry stands and how to start shifting your company’s big data paradigm
According to the latest McKinsey Quarterly newsletter, companies with 1,000+ employees in 15 of the US economy’s 17 sectors now store more information (or “big data”) than the Library of Congress. The companies that are already using this big data to inform their key business decisions are more productive and also have higher returns. Given this trend, it’s more critical than ever to know where your company and industry stand in the big data universe and how much big data should be impacting your business today to keep you ahead of the competition.
Information and Finance Sectors Poised to Lead the Big Data Revolution
The chart below highlights the industries that can gain the most value from big data, as well as the industries that will have the easiest time capturing the data they need. Of all the industries represented, the IT and Finance sectors are currently positioned to make the most of big data in short term and pave the way for other industries to follow.
Big Data: “Ease-of-Capture” and “Value Potential” Indexes by Industry
1 For detailed explication of metrics, see appendix in McKinsey Global Institute full report: Big data: the next frontier for innovation, competition, and productivity, available free of charge online at mckinsey.com/mgi.
Source: US Bureau of Labor Statistics; McKinsey Global Institute analysis
3 Expert Tips for Shifting Your Company’s Big Data Paradigm
If your company is still struggling to change its paradigm when it comes to the perceived value of big data, you are not alone. Cloudera co-founder Jeff Hammerbacher was recently interviewed by the McKinsey Global Institute on this topic and offered up three tips that can help:
1. Commit to conceiving of big data as your competitive advantage.
2. Learn how to point your infrastructure/platforms for storing and analyzing data at real problems.
3. When you are determining how to use big data in your organization, be honest about what your business looks like now and what it will look like in the future (i.e, your ability to hire and grow), but expand your imagination on what you can accomplish using it.
How quickly do you think your company and industry overall will be able to integrate big data into daily decision-making? We invite you to share your opinions below.