How to take advantage of Big Data - A historical approach

Big Data is not a new term. It was first introduced in the U.S. in the 1980s. Big not only means that the volume is huge, but also means the amount of data that we can analyze and utilize grows exponentially.

According to Moore’s Law, the computer hardware processing speed and storage capability will double every one or two years.

This exploding volume growth of data is represented in three dimensions:

1. The same type of data increases rapidly.
2. The speed at which data is obtained.

3. The variety of data continues to grow, including the data source and the data type.

How to collect, store, maintain, manage, analyze and share the Big Data remains a challenge to the world.

Ramayya Krishnan mentioned that Big Data has the potential to fundamentally transform society. However, unlocking this potential will require careful attention to data governance and insightful application of data analytics combined with an environment that spurs managerial innovation.

From a historical perspective, to accept a new trend and to take advantage of it takes courage, persistence and improvement/integration of legislation, technology and talent.

Legislation

Let’s look at how the U.S. government prepared itself to adapt to the trend. The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) took effect after the 12-year arduous effort of the Father of FOIA John Moss and the ice breaker Donald Rumsfeld.

Technology

When the concept of internet started to become a popular term in 1988, Mark Weiser a scientist from Xerox first defined Ubiquitous Computing. It basically means that for everything that exists in the world, it can be connected to everything else. Every connected thing can be calculated. This can be achieved by connecting small computing devices. This way the data can be collected anywhere, anytime. Eventually computers will integrate with the environment as a whole.

Another important concept is Business Intelligence which is defined as “ to collect, store, analyze and share data.” In 1992, Bill Inmon, the father of the Data Warehouse defined it as a subject oriented, integrated, non volatile and time variant data storage to support decision making. In 1993, Edgar Codd made contributions to Online Analytical Processing. In my opinion, one of the most important concepts is visual explanations - the visual display of quantitative information. Since the data has become more and more complex, people can hardly understand what it means. Visual explanation will help ordinary people to understand the trend behind the data. Design is pivotal for data visualization. Edward Tufte said that there is no such thing as information overload, just bad design. If something is cluttered and/or confusing, fix your design.

Talent

Let’s find out why the U.S. has been able to advance in the software industry for many years. In 1959, the U.S. National Defense department and IBM jointly developed a project - Semi-Automatic Ground Environment. This project was dedicated to collect, process signals from radars to monitor activities by various aircrafts. It lasted 30 years and cost approximately $10 billion (U.S.). Together with other similar sized large projects, they trained many data analysts, developers and architects.  They were called the West Point training projects. Those talent people then joined the private sectors and have developed all kinds of software which made U.S. remain at the top in the global software industry.

The impact of Big Data to Individuals, Organizations and Government

Individual Data Privacy

The U.S. Privacy Study Commission (1977), mentioned that the real danger to individuals is the gradual erosion of individual liberties through automation, integration, and interconnection of many small, separate record-keeping systems, each of which alone may seem innocuous, even benevolent, and wholly justifiable.

In 1948, George Orwell, in his book titled Nineteen Eighty Four, described a situation where you had no place to hide whenever you were sleeping or awake, working or eating, indoor or outdoor, in the bed or in the bathtub. Except what’s inside your brain, nothing belonged to you. There was a Big Brother who took control of things. Today, the Big Brother could be the central data bank. The impact of data integration from different source is immense, similar to 1+1>2.

Organization - Data Driven Decision Making

In 1989, Howard Dresner first defined Business Intelligence that is a fact based business decision making method.

Wal Mart was the first organization that applied data mining techniques. The famous case study was the successful campaign of diaper and beer promotional package sale. According to the data analysis, Wal Mart found out that 30% to 40% new fathers tend to buy beers as a bonus for themselves when they purchase diapers. The cross sales campaign was a huge success and data driven decision making has been widely utilized thereafter in the business world.

Government - Increase Efficiency and Effectiveness

The U.S. government has also benefited from Big Data analysis. Jack Maple, created CompStat (Computer Statistics) methodology to analyze the reasons and trends of crimes in New York City which has proven effective and efficient to stop crimes and better utilize police force.

The collection, storage, management, analysis and sharing of Big Data will continue to evolve as technologies and techniques using Big Data develop and as the economic benefits of the use of data continue to grow.

Source: "Big Data", Tu Zipei

Identify the blue ocean and stay in it -- what made Cirque du Soleil so successful

All who saw it must have been thrilled by the amazing performance by Cirque du Soleil (the Cirque) at the Pan Am 2015 opening ceremony in Toronto. The Quebec based group was founded by Guy Laliberté and other partners. Some-time accordion player, stilt-walker and fire-eater, Guy spent the past 20 years making the Cirque -- earlier this year sold to TPG at 1.5 billion US dollars -- a huge success.

What are the critical success factors that helped the Cirque create and maintain uncontested market space (often called a blue-ocean strategy)?

Among many factors, I summarize the following three factors that are of most importance:

Innovation

Every organization talks about innovation, but what made Cirque du Soleil so special in terms of innovation?  If you have watched any of its performances, you will notice that it’s a circus without any animals. It is actually a combination of acrobatics, musical numbers and performing arts. So it created a new definition of circus - familiar yet strangely new.

The Cirque embraces ideas from a wide variety of resources, not only including those from the creative team, but also from performers and behind the scenes staff across the globe. There is an annual workshop that allows over 5,000 global employees to express their ideas freely. What’s more, the Cirque also collects feedback from temporary workers like artists and new technology innovators.

The Cirque is a lean organization. They cut the high cost of training and caring for animals (by eliminating the animals) and focus not on big name, expensive stars but on a stellar lower-cost ensemble. The creative team is independent. Each team member can fully utilize his/her imagination without any interruption or random changes.  For example, its art director Sean Mckeown mentioned that the Cirque added the theater elements and creatively used the painting style to show the plots.

Data driven approach

When planning a new performance, the marketing team will conduct market research and identify which topic/theme interests an audience the most. Then the creative team will create a storyline based on the results and decide what kind of sceneries and performers are required.

The Cirque has a comprehensive database that records every performer's strengths and weaknesses. It works a bit differently than other circuses. For other circuses, if a crew performed a show well, they would produce a new one using the same crew. The Cirque, on the other hand, will hand pick each performer based on the theme, plot and requirements from the creative director through the global database. This ensures the best suitable performers are selected for a specific show.  The Cirque knows that the most important element in a performance is people. What can really touch audience is the emotional attachment that performers created through their movements, facial expressions and integration with music, settings and lightings.

Leadership

Guy Laliberté, the former owner and current CEO, empowers the team and sets minimum restrictions to maximize every employee’s potential, expertise and ideas. However, when it comes to decision making, he himself becomes a standard. To some extent, Guy is a demanding boss who requires high quality and pays close attention to details. The whole team works under pressure that is not from bureaucratic hierarchy, but from the mutual agreement of exceeding the requirements and pursuing excellence.

On the other hand, as a former performer, Guy understands how to attract audience attention and he tries to be objective as he does not involve himself with the creative team on a daily basis and therefore can view the show with fresh ideas. If the rehearsal does not meet his requirement, Guy is not afraid to make big changes at the last minute.

All these above mentioned factors have contributed to the success of Cirque du Soleil. Chan Kim, the co-author of Blue Ocean Strategy believes that you can pursue both differentiation and low cost at the same time when you apply the blue ocean strategy. The Cirque’s success seems to support that view -- always new and exciting, it spends its resources wisely focused on maintaining and building in its unique market space with a brilliant, collaborative ensemble performing a unique variety of acts using all available arts creatively and economically.

What I learned from Light Reading's Big Telecom Event (BTE) 2015

I recently attended Light Reading’s Big Telecom Event (BTE) 2015 in Chicago.

Organizations, large or small, all agreed that we should stop running alone and start innovating together in this uncertain and ever changing Telecom world. IBM, for example, is building a cloud-based open platform designed to allow clients and ecosystem partners build Internet of Things (IoT) solutions and will invest $3 billion over the next four years to establish a new IoT unit.

What impressed me the most was the Women in Tech breakfast champions. In an industry inundated with men, we often joke that technology trade shows like BTE are the few places where you won’t see women line up at the washroom. Light Reading’s invited influential women leaders in the technology field to share their personal experiences and success stories.

One of the common attributes that those successful women all share is the positive attitude. Jennifer Perron-Micek, Senior Director, Products & Innovation, US Cellular pointed out that women have natural-born skills that men often don’t possess, such as being talented at building relationships, and that we can harness theses attributes to be successful and get ahead. Karen Freitag, President, Sprint Enterprise Solutions thought that women have greater opportunities than ever before, and that women need to change their perspective and not let the extra responsibilities that we take on hold us back.

Chicago CIO Brenna Berman shared her favourite quotes. She’s a strong believer in taking unexpected opportunities and working hard - a winning combo.

"Luck is a matter of preparation meeting opportunity."

- Seneca the Younger

"Luck to me is... Hard work and realizing what is opportunity and what isn't."

- Lucille Ball

Everybody will always face different challenges in our personal and work life. Be true to ourselves is very important. Don’t try to be something we aren’t. What we bring to the table is so valuable. Don’t lose that.

How to beat the new competitors

I attended a marketing conference organized by the Canadian Marketing Association (CMA)  recently. One of the topics that attracted me specifically was how to beat the new competitors.

Here is a case study used at the conference:

Silver Circle, a family run restaurant has been around for over 80 years. When Mr. Miller took it over from his father, the restaurant was facing fierce competition. In recent years, many new competitors, including bars, clubs and restaurants had been built in the neighbourhood adorned with luxurious decor and fancy names. In comparison, the Silver Circle seemed old fashioned and couldn’t attract new customers, although the food was known to be delicious, the customer service great and the price very reasonable. What suggestions would you make to Mr. Miller in order to change the situation?

Mr. Miller hired a marketing agency that suggested that he change the restaurant name from Silver Circle to Five Circles. A special part of the marketing strategy was the logo design. The agency emphasized that the logo should be six large circles instead of five circles.  After Mr. Miller changed the name and the logo of the restaurant, magic happened. The passers-by started to notice there was a mistake in the logo and stood in long lines to get into the restaurant. Mr. Miller felt really embarrassed when a lot of customers pointed out the mistake to the waiters/waitresses.

It’s interesting that after pointing out the mistake, people felt satisfied that their observation skills were rewarded. They started to pay attention to the amiable environment, polite service and tasty food. Many new customers told Mr. Miller that they hadn’t previously noticed his great restaurant.  Since then, the Five Circles restaurant has become very famous and attracted people from other towns. When Mr. Miller asked the agency why the marketing strategy had worked, they told him that looking for mistakes is one of people’s favourite activities. People who found the mistake, pointed it out and enjoyed a meal had a triple dose of satisfaction.

The agency taught Mr. Miller the value of understanding human behaviour, which is critical to being able to compete. Finding ways of competing that go beyond providing a good product or service are already separating winners from losers. Future commercial competition will be driven by this kind of differentiator.  

What skills marketers should possess in this ever changing digital era?

I had an opportunity to attend an innovative social media management platform launch event. This so-called “social media management tool for dummies” was designed for SMB business owners who have little social media management experiences and/or resident skills. The powerful tool will solve all headaches in the process of managing social media. What impressed me the most was that it can provide easy to follow action plans to improve the effectiveness of all social media channels based on backend complicated big data analysis. With the rapid development of new technology and maturity of big data analysis, I started to contemplate as to what skills, marketers should possess in this ever changing digital era.

Oliver Emberton described a human’s brain likened to a beach volleyball which contains numerous bees flying to all directions. Marketers today are overwhelmed in various online and offline campaigns and pull out their hair to figure out best practices and actionable plans to achieve demanding business goals embedded in an environment of substantial data and reports. In my opinion, focus is one of the most important skills marketers should possess. Oliver created a formula that illustrates the correlation between your achievement and your direction.

Your achievement = your potential/your directions ²

Focus/concentration is taking our mind off many things and putting it on one thing at a time.  One of the tips to control our mind according to Oliver is to take notes when we don’t really need to. For example, when we read books, taking notes would make our mind to focus on the content of what we read.

The second most important skill that marketers should have is creativity. When a reporter asked Albert Einstein do you remember the speed of sound in air. Einstein said that he needed to look for the information because he would never remember things that could be easily found via a simple search. Problem solving relies on the ability to think and creativity is much more significant than knowledge itself.

Michael Michalko, one of the highly acclaimed creative experts in the world

provided 7 ways to think creatively. Let’s take the following scenario as an example to explain his creative method:

May has a dog whose left eye is blind.

1. Think from a different angle - I am a dog whose left eye is blind. My master is Mary.
2. Visualize our thoughts - Mary always feeds her dog from the right side because her dog’s left eye is blind.
3. Practice the thoughts and learn from the process - Mary is sitting on a chair. Her dog tries to jump on her laps using its right side of the body because its left eye is blind.
4. Integrate different things together - Some of Mary’s friends seldom visit her because they are afraid of her dog whose left eye is blind.
5. Form some never happened relationship - Mary once took her dog to visit Jack and found out that Jack’s cat’s left eye is also blind, just like her dog.
6. Think reversely - if Mary’s dog’s left eye has no problem, Mary won’t need to spend a lot of time to take special care of the dog.
7. Think abstractly - When people face politics, they are like Mary’s dog. One eye can see, but the other eye is always blind.

Six branding strategies that built well-known brands

When it comes to branding, coca-cola is one of the most mentioned names, thanks to its mysterious ingredients. Human beings are interested in difference from other brands, but are even more interested in the mystery.

Here is a summary of the six branding strategies that have created strong brand names:

1. Keep secret and legal

Although coca-cola prints the ingredients of its beverage on each can/bottle, as required by law, it is legal to keep their secret recipe locked in a safe behind a thick bank vault door.  They have built this most extraordinary well-known brand for 129-year period.

     2. Scarce value

I on one occasion had a business dinner with a Chinese client from Kunming, He was generous enough to invite me to taste one of the most expensive teas in China - Puerh tea. The one I tasted cost approximately $500 Canadian dollars per gram. The most expensive one can go as high as $925 per gram.  I am a tea drinker and have tasted many kinds of high-quality teas, but I sipped it very carefully when I tasted that particular cup of tea. An exceptional tea!

3. Sell suspense

Do you remember Paul’s (the octopus) predictions at the 2010 World Cup? Although the world cup was hosted in Africa, Germany used Paul the octopus to advertise/promote the cup, and successfully attracted world’s attention. Can an octopus really predict the outcome? Here,  the suspense and curiosity played a huge role to generate public interests.  

Suspense to some degree, creates a sense of unpredictability and urgency. Zara knows how to leverage the unpredictability to boost the sales. They don’t carry a large inventory. They educate customers. For example, if you don’t buy this T-shirt today,  you may not be able to get the same style tomorrow.

4. Tell a story

I have heard many versions of how the name of “DOVE” came about. Whether “DOVE” stands for the love of a great father for his son, or the love of a man to his lover is not so important. The critical part is that we all remembered that “DOVE” is a short form for “do you love me”. People buy DOVE chocolates as a gift to express love.

5. Make it a ceremony

Disneyland’s parade is a typical ceremony. When the parade starts, hundreds of thousands kids and their families stand on each side of the parade path and eagerly wait for the famous cartoon characters they like. Disney use this kind of ceremony to encourage children to play/purchase with those mysterious characters.  Their merchandise sales skyrocketed.

6. Simplicity

When Xiaomi first launched its Mi phones, nobody knew anything about the smart phone besides its “MI” logo. However, after you switch on the phone and explore many advanced features, you want to know how much it cost. The phone is very affordable. Bingo, people want the phone badly. Xiaomi sold over 61 million phones and doubled its revenue to $12 billion US dollars in 2014.

How Marketing and Sales can work together?

I attended the recent Tech Marketing and Sales Think Tank roundtable discussion organized by ITAC ( Information Technology Association of Canada) and SMA.

The topic was “Sales vs. Marketing: closing the great divide”. One of the most often asked questions to me is how marketing and sales can work together. I heard a great analogy during the discussion - “farmer’s field”. “Marketing plants the seed, and cares for the plants while they are growing. Sales conducts the harvest.  Sales must save some of the harvest to generate seeds for the next crop. Without Marketing, Sales cannot harvest.  Without Sales, Marketing cannot plant.”

Marketing and Sales are different because Marketing, in most cases is one to many, whereas sales are normally one to one. However, with the new technology and changing customer behaviour, Marketing’s role has evolved. Today, marketing not only needs to continue to utilize one to many approach for brand awareness and thought leadership as corporate marketing, but also has to take responsibility for generating leads, so-called field marketing. At the field level, human to human marketing has become a trend for 2015 and beyond. In the Human Era, a business will thrive by individualizing an audience and building authentic connections.

But how can marketing provide individualized content and meaningful intelligence and at the same time enable sales? This comes with sales and marketing cooperation. Unfortunately, in the real business world, the co-operation is very challenging. Sales focus on closing deals and work diligently to meet their sales target. Marketing, on the other hand, has segmented into different functional groups such as corporate communication, digital and event marketing, each has different goals and KPIs. Both organizations have high expectations of the other, but very limited time and patience to understand the other party, let alone affect co-operation.

Marketing considers sales as the go-to resource for customers. Marketing wants to collect information such as customer buying behaviour at the different stages of the buyer’s journey and decision-making criteria as much as possible to direct marketing strategies through sales co-operation. But often times, the response rate is low as Sales is very protective of their customer base, worrying that marketing may take away some of their control over sales. Sales is also demanding that Marketing provide as much competitive information and industry intelligence to better equip them.

Here are some tips to improve Marketing and Sales cooperative strategies that work:

• Constant communications to close the misconception and build mutual understanding.
• Involve both Marketing and Sales in the planning and budgeting processes and find out common goals.
• Redefine sales compensation plans to encourage Sales to provide customer insights and maintain a good relationship with existing customer base.
• Include Marketing in the sales pipeline and build compensation/bonus plans accordingly.