Key Messages:
As we all know, we’re living in a world increasingly awash in data. The cloud and mobile devices account for huge fractions of the data being generated.
But the true value of data cannot be realized in these volumes without analytics to reduce the data into insight, insight that enables action.
Talking points
The majority of new data created is closely aligned with either mobile devices or sensors or will be stored in cloud-based repositories.
Moreover, what we expected to do with data is changing just as fast.
In the 1990’s we created enterprise data warehouses to enable the collection of historic repositories of typically transacational data.
In the 2000’s we created rich reporting, dashboarding and other BI frameworks to deliver value from the growing collections of historic and recent transactional data.
The huge shift, in this decade is the move to not only capture vast amounts of data from a variety of sources, but to realize huge value from it through statistics, predictive analytics, and increasingly, machine learning.
And it is these data companies that are defining this new breed of organisation, a new breed of competition
From uber that has no cars
To facebook that has no content of its own
To Airbnb that has no real estate on its books
To Alibaba, which has no inventory.
These organisations are multi-billion $ organisations due to one thing, their business model is based on a data culture.
Leveraging analytics to engage, target, connect with the customer in ways we never did in the past.
I talk with lots of customers who now what to be the uber of their sector and are investing heavily into their data strategies to drive that change. I have talked to several people here who are looking to do the same.
Technology meets disruptive business models
Let’s take a look at Uber – a fabulous piece of user technology that marries drivers with passengers.
In itself, that’s not particularly innovative… However it has changed the way we travel around towns.
For instance the days of standing on a street corner in the rain, trying to hail a cab….Gone
The days of not having enough cash to pay for the transaction, stopping (increasing journey time and stress) getting wet again??.....Gone
Now you simply go the app………..
You know when the cab will arrive
Who the driver is
How long your journey will be
Upon arrival your account is debited
You simply got in and got out, no stress arrived safe, well dry and ready for your meeting……..a great experience!!
And it’s companies like UBER that are re-defining and disrupting the market…….. a new breed of company and competition, creating new opportunities and providing the experience we have all come to expect as today’s status quo!
Our 300 year old taxi business is also in the 21st century with app based solutions such as Hailo and Gett providing an almost identical experience (only difference being the car)
Since UBER came into the UK market the number of black cabs have increased by 20% in London alone we make on average 300,000 journey’s by taxi, so there’s major opportunity and if you consider that in the next 5 years they’ll likely be a significant reduction in car ownership with more pooling and sharing services UBER, Zipcar, etc then this will continue to rise!!
So UBER not particularly innovative……….well think about this the ‘zero marginal cost’ benefit?
It allows Uber to use drivers in a ‘delivery for everything’ model with no noticeable incremental costs to itself. It costs the same to deliver anything, from customers and fast food, to parcels and even flu jabs.
On its own, perhaps this is enough to give Fedex and UPS a Kodak moment, but it’s gone deeper than that. Uber recently bought out an API that allows other businesses to use Uber services. So currently in America, Opentable, an app for booking restaurant tables, includes Uber as part of the service so that booking a table automatically includes an Uber ride there and back. It’s horizontal integration with no marginal cost, and technology + zero marginal cost = scaleable disruption.
It goes event further than that UBER bought OTTO the transportation startup.
The young company were behind the creation of the genius ‘retro-fit kit’ capable of turning any truck built in or after 2013 into an autonomous vehicle. At first, the partnership looked like it was geared towards the domination of driverless transportation. However, Uber’s latest plans reveal an ultimate goal that stretches far beyond that!!
If you thought of Uber as no more than a handy taxi app, then think again. Services like UberEats and UberRush have built up the business’s knowledge about urban mapping and logistics, but now they want to apply this on a much larger scale. Uber’s partnership with Otto is part of a strategy to become a global leader in shipping and delivery.
Around 70% of global freight is transported by trucks, but the adoption rate of new technology within trucking has been generally quite slow. This is because of legacy trucking companies who don’t want to fix what, in their eyes, isn’t broken……….watch out guys there’s a wind of change on the way!!
Uber is undoubtedly one of the biggest success stories in business within the last five years, going from a transportation startup to the go-to name for all things taxi. And then they started delivering food. And then parcels. And then they set up a carpooling service. And then they teamed up with TomTom.
We all know that data differentiates. And we know from research that we only leverage about 10%-15% of the data we have to gain any level of insight. Obviously top performing companies leverage far more.
It is also easy to say that Data is the currency in the twenty-first century. We hear about data being the new oil man times.
And that Companies that take advantage of data opportunities have the potential to outperform those that do not
But what we are starting to see from the research, from the impact on the share price of these organization is that Data and specifically driving a data culture is a key differentiator for businesses today and in the future. And only a small percentage of companies are doing this.