ABSTRACT
Having big data is not sufficient of itself to develop a successful value-creating big data strategy. Firms need to invest in big data capabilities that transform the organization into a fact-based and more data-driven enterprise. At first blush this seems easy to achieve. Firms should just buy some software, hire some big data experts, and the big data initiatives can take-off. According to IDG (2014) the top five big data investments involve storage, servers, cloud infrastructure, discovery and analytics, and applications. However, many of these investments will certainly lead to serious disappointments. And indeed according to Cisco 60% of companies agree that big data will help improve decision making and increase their competitiveness,1 but only 28% indicate that they are currently generating strategic value from their data. Probably some short-term successes can be achieved; however, for a long-term impact firms should invest in people, systems, processes, and the organization. Our experiences have shown that firms may face several hurdles to do so. For example, firms may be confronted
with old systems and databases that are difficult to replace. Importantly, there is also a shortage of analytical talent (Manyika et al. 2011; Leeflang, Verhoef, Dahlström, & Freundt, 2014; see also Figure 5.1). Finding analytical people to hire can be a nightmare. Western European companies are now hiring talent from India and other Asian countries to fill analytical vacancies. Another hurdle is to change the culture to one in which analytical solutions are considered as very valuable input in marketing decision making, instead of only focusing on intuition.
