Data Management at Scale, 2nd Edition

Chapter 1. The Journey to Becoming Data-Driven

The pre-COVID-19 world was already fast and highly data-driven, but the pace of change has accelerated rapidly. Fierce competition, a digital-first era, ever-increasing customer expectations, and rising regulatory scrutiny require organizations to transform themselves into modern data-driven enterprises. This transformation will inevitably result in future organizations being more digital than those of today, and having a different view of data. Tomorrow’s organizations will breathe data and embrace a philosophy that places it at the heart of their business. They will manage data as a product, make strategic decisions based on data analysis, and have a culture that acts on data.

Data-driven isn’t just a buzzword.¹ Being data-driven provides an organization with a significant competitive advantage over other organizations. It can be proactive, and it can predict what will happen before it does. By using data correctly, organizations can quickly react to changes. Using data leads to greater confidence because decisions are based on facts, not intuition. With data, new industry trends and business opportunities can be spotted sooner. Customer retention and satisfaction are improved as well, because data tells organizations what customers think, how they behave, and what they want. With data, organizations can be more flexible, agile, and cost effective, because data provides insights into measured results, employee loyalty, dependencies, ...