Data is the new Oil

The industrial revolution was driven by fossil fuels, coal gas and above all oil, were becoming highly sought after. Wars were fought, regimes toppled, and thousands of people died, all in the pursuit of a little taste of black gold. Oil companies have become some of the most profitable companies in the history of the planet.

However, oil’s period of global domination is coming to an end; data is fast becoming the most sought after resource on the planet, driven by our ever more interconnected society in an age of digital revolution.

Five of the six largest US companies are digital companies, all located on the US West coast. Amazon, Microsoft, Apple, Facebook and Alphabet/Google.

In the digital era data is the new oil. The new mantra is: “In God we Trust, all others bring data”

The famous quote has been attributed to W. Edwards Deming, the father of modern quality management.  Deming was heavily involved in the economic reconstruction of post World War 2 Japan that saw the country become the world economic powerhouse of the 1960s, 70s and 80s.  Deming had the fundamental philosophy that data measurement and analysis were essential to attaining superior performance in every facet of business.

This fundamental principle still holds strong today for any business presence.  A significant number of businesses have very little idea on how their business is performing; and more importantly identifying ways to improve it. This quote by W. Edwards Deming, very concisely explains to us the importance of understanding and interpreting the large volume of data that gets created almost every day by the world. 

When your business is growing, more and more people have opinions about which steps need to be taken. It helps to work with a ‘good data beats opinion’ philosophy. Almost everything can be tested, measured and improved. If you can measure it, you can improve it. Inspire people to come up with new ideas and pick up new opportunities and just test it and see what the impact is. A test which you’re measuring is never worthless. At least you get new insights about if it’s working or not (and why) and in the best case, you got insights and improved your business directly.