Big Data as a Perfect Investment Option
In the twenty-first century, the appropriate use of information technology defines a company’s success. Information comes in a massive flood, and being able to operate the huge data is an essential skill of a modern leader. Therefore, the necessity to learn to operate this stream of information appears, which often happen to be quite challenging, yet opens a whole pool of opportunities.
First and most important, the process of decision making will be not only boosted impressively but also upgraded up to a few notches (McAfee & Brynjolfsson, 2012). To be more exact, the company will be able to enjoy additionally available avenues for the company’s further strategies in marketing, promotion, and supply chain management.
Moreover, seeing how the big data allows for better objectivity, a more accurate evaluation of the possible outcomes of specific decisions will be possible. In the light of the fact that our company may be willing to reduce the financial risks by creating a merger with another organization or by making an acquisition, it will be especially important to have verified data to base decisions on (Barton & Court, 2012).
Thus, big data is an opportunity for the company to grow. More importantly, it will help the organization make more efficient use of its assets and be able to solve the emerging issues faster. Also, the company will become more competitive, as the “big data” will provide the chances for developing an entirely new culture of decision making.
Big Data and Its Untrustworthiness: Where Caution is Needed
No matter how alluring the idea of using the so-called “big data” for the development of a company is, it should be taken with a grain of salt. While the opportunities that will supposedly open in front of the company if using the “big data” are doubtlessly alluring, they may come at a price, and this price needs to be evaluated.
To start with, the introduction of the “big data” principle into the company’s information management system presupposes that most of the company’s processes must be reorganized and restructured. It will be required to design an entirely new set of principles for information management, which may slacken the rest of the company processes.
Big data often comes unstructured and needs to be sorted in a very careful manner (McAfee & Brynjolfsson, 2012). Therefore, specific databases must be created for information storage and classification. Hence, the entire principle of data distribution, which the company follows now, will have to be changed.
Another problem traditionally associated with big data concerns information safety. Seeing how virtual databases can be accessed by online hackers, the company will be exposed to a risk of having its data stolen and used by the competitors.
Therefore, an impressive amount of money will have to be spent on facilitating the security of the databases, which are yet to be filled with the so-called “big data.” More to the point, the introduction of the big data into the principles of the company’s work presupposes that the staff must be trained to operate the new type of data efficiently (Davenport & Patil, 2012).
The aforementioned changes will require a lot of financial resources. However, investing in innovation, which will, later on, help the company develop is not a bad idea. The key problem here is that the big data does not offer anything new or anything that the company cannot survive without at present, which means that the results may be more than discouraging.
Reference List
Barton, D. & Court, D. (2012). Making advanced analytics work for you. Harvard Business review, 90(1), 78–83.
Davenport, T. & Patil, D. J. (2012). Data scientist: The sexiest job of the 21st century. Harvard Business review, 90(1), 70–78.
McAfee, A. & Brynjolfsson, E. (2012). Big data: The management revolution. Harvard Business review, 90(1), 60–69.