Mistaking data for insight

Businesspundit wonders if concentration is the new competitive advantage. He cites Harvard Business School professor Nicholas Carr noting that the tyranny of too much may be luring us into a pursuit of data instead of critical thinking:

...data is a comfort blanket in a way - we all do this. People are becoming addicted to getting more information all the time. You can see it when they get out their BlackBerrys as soon as they've stepped off a plane.

Like me, you've probably sensed the same thing, in yourself and in others - the way the constant collection of information becomes an easy substitute for trying to achieve any kind of true understanding. It seems a form of laziness as much as anything else, a laziness that the internet both encourages and justifies.

I'd put it another way. We used to live in an era of information scarcity; those that had the most information had significant power over those who didn't have it. But the Internet and the Web have destroyed that power. What is now scarce is synthesis: the ability to connect many data dots and create meaningful insight into what the data means.

One of Blackfriars most successful and most challenging courses is one we titled, "Turning Data Into Insight". In that course we give attendees some processes to create the type of synthesis we describe above. And the biggest struggle we see for attendees is that of not just presenting data, but actually interpreting the data using their own knowledge and experiences. It's hard work, and we also find it becoming increasingly rare.

But I particularly like Businesspundit's conclusions of how to counter this laziness in marketing yourself and your company:

....sustainable competitive advantage often requires that you be a contrarian. You go where other people aren't. You don't follow the masses. You let other companies move on from fad to fad while you question each "new thing" and focus on boring ideas like execution. Don't get distracted. Build a culture of concentration. While everyone else is searching for a long tail and a blue ocean, you can keep focusing on niche markets and differentiation, just as you always have. Concentration, focus, execution, the ability to tune out the fluff - that will be the competitive advantage of the future.

I'd change only one thing: concentration, focus, execution and the ability to tune out fluff are valuable now; there's no need to wait for the future.

Technorati Tags: Business, Marketing, Insight, Tyranny of too much