Data is cheap; strategy still matters

What could a Strategy Consulting firm have to do with or say about big data? We see Big Data leading the way on new products but also disrupting our clients business processes and business models. For many clients and big data fans, the temptation is to think big data and machine learning disrupt the need for strategy. Just throw the data in the lake and a bunch of programmers with machine learning fishing poles and we will be done. Here is a rapid-fire review of what really happens Use case 1: Use case 2: Use case 3: What did we learn working with these clients? Strategy still matters: Data is cheap; attention is not. While data and computational power are increasingly plentiful, people have limited attention and energy. Complexity can kill not so much in the model itself but in how it affects processes and decisions. Data is not so cheap after all. We continue to underappreciate data architecture, governance, and engineering. These frequently take up most of the effort required for analytics success. Winning with Big Data is often less about the latest technology platform but in our strategy, culture, organizational capabilities, the way we implement algorithms, how we make decisions with data, and the impacts these have on employees and customers.