The slogan “Data is the new oil” (created in 2006 by the English mathematician Clive Humby) sounds so old-fashioned, but in reality it is not that old. What has moved at a speed 100X faster is the enormous amount of information and data that is generated daily in the world.
According to the website tribunal.net, by the end of 2022 there will be 97 zettabytes of data in the world. If we assume that 1 million bytes is a megabyte and 1 trillion bytes is a gigabyte, then there are terabytes, petabytes, exabytes and it keeps multiplying by a thousand each time. A zettabyte means 1e+21 or 1,024 Exabyte. To the knowledge of a person who is not a data scientist or mathematician, this is already very difficult to understand. The final point here is the enormous amount of data that exists.
Around this, many companies have the dream of how to generate value through data, but not all of them even know where to start. And it is not for less, the challenge is greater. Generating value through data has, in turn, different scopes: internal and external.
-Internal scope: for organizations to know, recognize and reward their best customers. From my point of view, this is the greatest value of a data strategy. Being able to use it responsibly to thank the most loyal customers with the highest value towards the brand.
-External reach or monetization: this is the way in which organizations can generate value through adjacencies on the information transformed into marketing efforts, monetization at the aggregate level or through new sources of income, such as a media services strategy, so current in some countries currently.
Having customer data is a very sensitive issue whichever way you look at it. I would like to start first by highlighting the obligation that companies have to safeguard responsibly and safely the integrity of the information they collect from customers and the transactions that are stored. It is required to have a technology and security infrastructure that is consistent with the organization’s commitment to the client, that is, there can be no tolerance for leaks or security breaches.
Subsequently, there must be responsible use of that data in accordance with the clients’ consent of what they want and do not want how their information is used. For this, many countries are already embracing or emulating the European personal data privacy law known as GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) which has 7 principles that regulate it.
Under these two premises, technology, security and treatment of personal data, I would add a third. Worth. Any organization that aspires to store, manage and use data must return value to customers because the latter have agreed to provide their personal data in return for receiving something in return. It is no longer allowed to request data without granting something relevant in return. People should be aware that their personal information is of high value.
The 3 reflections that I want to make through these words is to make companies and organizations that store customer data aware of the following:
- Personal data does not belong to companies, it belongs to people that authorize companies to use it safely, responsibly and that add value back to the person.
- Once trust is lost there is no way to get it back. and this should be a lesson that all companies that store data should take very seriously. If there is an incident or event that puts personal data at risk, people should ask themselves if they want to deal with that company in the future, or at least trust their information.
- Companies that ask for data are to return value to the client for trusting that their data will be stored securely and used responsibly. That value must be perceived as relevant by customers.
To conclude, I like to think that data used in a safe, respectful, responsible and relevant way by governments and companies can improve the lives of millions of people.
Imagine using data on the medical history of a community where you can predict what kind of diseases are triggered in the population according to certain external factors such as the weather. This data could save lives if used to keep drug inventory at the right time and place. The above is a single example of what I call “Generate social value through data”.