Is Risk Really Holding Back Big Data Projects?

In his WSJ article titled "The Risks of Big Data for Companies", Dr. Jordan explains a number of risks that companies should be aware of before jumping into this new and unchartered market.

He outlines that too much data could be dangerous for companies who might invoke inner company politics or make unjustified decisions too early with the results they make. I would imagine there are no risks in ignoring information that the data gives us and just keep moving along as a horse with blinders.

WHAT? If people seriously took the advice of this column in the WSJ, we would never advance in business. More importantly the #1 risk that is keeping up every CEO is not whether a plant in Canada has better output than the same in the US, thusly creating an "inner company rivalry". No, the #1 threat is the competition. The competition can close down your market and make your company's revenue tumble.

Listening to this sort of advice is not only dangerous, but plainly stupid. No company that I have helped with Big Data projects has decided to throw out human intuition and experience for decisions made based on the data alone. Instead all functioning companies want to see whether the data can complement decision making. That is what a pilot will show and the ensuing business case will prove it, or not. Pilot programs should be done with Big Data in small areas to show what we could know, without fear that we will uncover some terrible new insights that could cause inner company conflict.

If you are starting a new Big Data project, please do NOT read this article. Instead follow your own intuition and call me in as an adviser.