Category: Collaborative Age value production system

How Data Really is the New Oil, and Better

We hear more and more often this expression, and it has been made popular by a few papers and books. We have quoted a quite noted Economist article on the topic in a previous post ‘How User-Generated Data Should be Better Valued‘. In this interesting post ‘Fueling Alpha: Data Is Powering The New World‘, this view is explained in a quite straightforward manner.

“Data can be seen as the fuel to the information economy and oil to the industrial economy. The amount of power someone has can be correlated to their control of and access to these resources … and, leaking of these resources can lead to extreme consequences.”

It is important to realize that the amount of data we are generating is staggering and ever increasing: “A staggering 90% of all the world’s data (2.5 quintillion bytes per day) has been created in the past two years alone … and its value is rapidly rising. With IoT growing from 2 billion devices in 2006 to a projected 200 billion by 2020 you can expect to see that growth continue to explode.“

Thus of course, data is better than oil because it is renewable and is currently created at a much higher rate every month. It is also quite accessible without any issue of geographical border and limited legal issues. Therefore it won’t deplete soon and we can expect to have limited access risks (with some exceptions).

Data is what will soon drive fully our economies. Our institutions have not yet realized it, and while we can expect like for oil a temporary domination by some large companies, we can also expect that in the long term there will be a more regulated usage framework.

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How Access to Data Is a Key Issue for Start-Ups

Following on our previous post ‘How Data Really is the New Oil, and Better‘, there are two issues for data like for oil: access to the data, and then the ability to process it to produce value.

It is easier for startups to find new ways of processing the data to extract value, because the way it can be processed is heavily dependent on the utilization and hence niches can be produced to provide the user with specific benefits. The way to massage the data to provide value requires a lot of user interaction.

I observe that access to data is an issue for startups and the usual internet suspects have of course a substantial advance on that aspect.

In my limited experience as Business Angel with start-ups I observe that access to the data is often the most frustrating part. Governments’ public cata availability initiatives (open data) have not yet delivered in all countries and areas of public life. Private data can be difficult to get to help develop a product without entering legal issues, and they are often difficult to use technical as well because of their inconsistency or historical aspects. In that context data cleansing and preparation is becoming a real trade.

Hence for start-ups, access to relevant data is often the bottleneck and this aspect must be carefully vetted before launching a venture, because it is where you may fail or have to surrender to some data hoarding giant.

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How Electric Vehicles Seem to Become Mainstream Quicker Than Expected

In this interesting post ‘Electric Vehicles Are Outperforming The Traditional S-Curve Dynamics‘, the growth of the Electric Vehicle (EV) market is analyzed. The result is that all indicators tend to show that the product is now becoming mainstream instead of being a niche product.

The argument of the article is based on the fact that EV introduction is accelerating (in terms of year-on-year growth, thus from an exponential perspective) instead of slowing down as could be expected, “suggesting that EVs are expanding the addressable market“. This just means that the addressable market had been considered in a too restrictive manner initially, which can also be viewed as the fact that the EV product is now mainstream with a much larger market.

In fact, the initial introduction of EV was heavily subsidized and this limited de facto the possible market; such subsidies are progressively diminishing, because for certain usage patterns, EV do become economically competitive with mass production.

This analysis would seem to show that the rate of adoption would be so high in the next few years that it may be offering-constrained due to the delays in setting up sufficient production capacity, with a focus on batteries.

Electric Vehicles are some kind of hybrid between a conventional mechanical appliance and an electronic equipment, we can thus expect to see a much quicker adoption in the next few years that could be expected from a purely mechanical commodity. Next few years will be quite exciting in that respect!

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How People Are Increasingly Shunning Traditional Information Media

In this important post ‘News Rejection is Mostly Media’s Fault‘, Frederic Filloux investigates the possible reasons why the public’s confidence in traditional media has dramatically eroded in the past years. This effect is observed in all democratic countries, in a more or less dramatic manner.

It is a reality that more people are avoiding traditional media outlet and prefer to refer to social networks, which is a root cause for misinformation. It even facilitates active campaigns of dis-information or even manipulation with the objective to destabilize democracies.

Frederic Filloux’s view is that it is mainly the own fault of the media outlets that are presenting news, according to him, in a much too dramatic and negative manner, and in an over-simplistic manner. He also identifies a growing disconnect between people’s preoccupations and the topics covered in media.

There has always been a lack of trust between part of the population and institutions (mass media being viewed as an institution, traditionally possibly manipulated by tycoons and/or the political power). It is the extent of that lack of trust which is problematic, how it evolves, and how the trend is being exploited by destabilization efforts.

Mass media is still looking for its Collaborative Age business model, and how to check and disseminate information on new channels. There is a risk of a split between professional journalism and reliable news that would only be affordable to part of the population, hence creating a split in the worldview that would be difficult to bridge.

Yes, mass media needs to change its way of working, and soon, to adapt to the new world. A new model needs to be found that combines economic sustainability with proper recognition by an ever-more expecting population. Many experiments are ongoing, let’s hope the right model will be found soon!

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How Being Bored Becomes Good

In this interesting post ‘Why Being Bored Is Good‘ this controversial statement is explained in detail. Being bored goes against the natural evolution of our ever-increasing busy, connected, stimulated days. Still it seems that it would be essential to remain bored from time to time.

From a historical perspective, as the post explains, boredom was rather seen as an evil: the source of crime, addiction to games of chance and more generally, anti-social behavior. Therefore the solution was to find some occupation so that people wouldn’t have stray thoughts and too much idle time on their hand.

In the current Collaborative Age, the age of the attention-economy, many devices try to make sure that we don’t get bored, calling our attention any minute with notifications that ensure that we interact with our devices (and provide information for free about ourselves that can be monetized by advertisement). Being bored now rather becomes a luxury, an exceptional state that some will seek to attain. There are books about how getting bored more or better, and how it is essential for our brin development and our creativity.

I’m not quite sure what to make from all those contradictory views. It seems to be quite useful to be from time to time idle, disconnected and well… bored. Therefore in our current world where this becomes rather the exception, it might be useful to try to attain that state from time to time. We’ll certainly see soon being bored as being a respectable holiday goal or activity!

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How Important It Is to Remember Krulak’s Law: Today, Front-Line Agents and Supervisors Win the Battles

Krulak’s Law states that the future of an organization is in the hands of the privates in the field, not the generals back home (Krulak was a famous Marines general, son of another nicknamed the ‘Brute’). Seth Godin in his post ‘The $50,000 an hour gate agent‘ gives a perfect example in daily life.

What I find interesting here is the statement that it is the increased complexity of war that requires more initiative and decision-making to be done at a lower level (‘the strategic corporal’). And hence the deployment of a vastly different approach in military organization and training.

This observation about the changes in military organization created by increased complexity are probably transferable to any kind of human organization in today’s world. It shows that the old-fashioned top-down management is doomed; and that front-line employees need to be given initiative and sufficient competency to take the right decisions at the right moment, because they are the ones that are faced with the actual issues.

It is not certain that this idea has permeated many of the larger corporate organizations, and changing the manner those organizations work and consider their personnel will take time. However, increased complexity coupled with easier communication will necessarily force the transformation.

Be proactive in applying Krulak’s law. Today it is the front-line agents and supervisors that win the battles. Not any more the generals and corporate executives.

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How Important It Is to Understand the Root Causes Before Treating the Symptoms

This post is written in the context of business for professional services, but of course the title applies more widely. Nevertheless, it is an essential aspect to be considered because as consultant we are often contacted because of some symptoms that have been noticed. And we should seek to understand the root causes before jumping into solely treating the symptoms.

Understanding the root causes often requires to take a more systemic view of the organization or the situation, looking in some details at all relevant aspects to identify if the symptom is isolated or only revealing a deeper issue. This should be the first step of the intervention, what I call the ‘discovery phase’. And it is essential that it is addressed in the most comprehensive manner so as to identify and treat the relevant root cause.

The ‘systematic’ approach here is essential as in any complex system: it needs to be considered in its entirety including the interfaces and relationships with external stakeholder to allow to identify the root causes.

In the past months I have been continuously amazed, as we have made this approach more systematic, at how we uncover root causes that are unexpected but relevant – requiring a lot of discussion with our clients.

This approach is not always understood even from clients who want a ‘quick fix’ solution, but that should be part of our ethics as professionals not to allow to just put a band-aid on a situation, but have a wider view of its causes. It is in any case absolutely essential for the sustainability of any change we intend to bring in the client organization’s or way of working.

It also applies in coaching situation and any situation of dysfunction: take the time at first to carefully assess the situation of its root causes so that you can treat the issue at its root.

This post is a follow-up from the post ‘Useful Lessons Learnt for the Professional Services Business‘ based on Pamela Slim’s post ‘23 Lessons from 23 years in business‘.

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How We Should Prioritize Impact over Income in Professional Services Businesses

While the title of this post is a bit provocative, I am convinced that it is essential in professional services businesses to ensure to have sufficient professional impact. Beyond the fact that it should be the essential objective, it is an essential condition for sustainable success – and hence income. And this should be a priority, which means that a number of activities must be undertaken that generate impact even with low or limited income.

Of course income is important but it should be viewed as a means to generate impact. And success means more income, that allows to generate even more impact.

Impact is an essential pre-condition to be noticed and respected as a competent contributor. It must hence be publicized for a large part (which may sometimes be difficult in services of a confidential nature – in that case some general publications are needed). It is also essential to provide clients with sufficient confidence to hire our services and have some idea of the benefits they can expect.

And finally, what are we here for if it is not to generate impact, if possible much, much larger than the cost of our services? And develop ourselves and our business to generate even more impact? The impact we should seek should also of course be ethically positive impact, i.e. provide our clients with tangible, positive and ethical benefits.

I encounter too many professional services professionals that don’t prioritize sufficiently impact and prefer to seek income. This is not a sustainable proposition, and they miss the point of providing this type of services. Let’s prioritize impact more consciously in our daily activities!

This post is a follow-up from the post ‘Useful Lessons Learnt for the Professional Services Business‘ based on Pamela Slim’s post ‘23 Lessons from 23 years in business‘.

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Useful Lessons Learnt for the Professional Services Business

I love this post by Pamela Slim ‘23 Lessons from 23 years in business‘, because it resonates with my experience while providing a useful perspective. Of course it is mainly applicable to professional services such as coaching and consulting, although after consideration, its relevance is actually quite far reaching. I really recommend the short read.

Here are some of the lessons that resonate the most with me:

  • we often don”t know but we have the find out attitude (through the depth of our network or reference basis)
  • the importance of professional ethics – any lapse will catch up later
  • be conservative on the financial side and on the commercial expectations to survive on the longer term
  • it’s actually more work and pain than you’d expect first!
  • seek impact rather than income
  • the importance of the client in our success and development
  • the need to look for root causes instead of going straight for the symptoms brought to our attention initially by the client

In some follow-up posts, the last three specific topics will be developed further because I believe they are so important.

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How Natural Language Processing Still Has Strong Limitations

I am getting quite interested these days about Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its actual applications. Most is about Deep Learning of course, and an essential element is Natural-Language Processing (NLP) or making sense for the machine of texts or words. This is an essential first stage to allow the machine to then perform statistical analysis of the data and produce all sorts of useful analysis.

I observe that NLP now performs very well in fields where expression is quite standardized and normalized, such as in legal or scientific fields. In particular, applications of AI to legal aspects is really becoming amazing. However, it still has limitations when it comes to analyzing informal correspondence and longer texts. This makes it harder to use AI to make sense of informal messages and data and to use those datasets as a basis for further analysis.

Of course it has improved substantially in the last months and years as any user of Google Translate or equivalent can witness: translations are now more to the point thanks to AI. Still it does not appear to be sufficient to deal with large sets of informal exchanges such as messages, email and other informal communication channels.

When this aspect will be overcome – which will take time and may not be immediately transferable between languages – the power of AI will be much more visible and dramatic than it is now. Let’s watch for progress in this area!

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How Dismantling Facebook Is an Increasingly Strong Idea

In the past months the pressure on dismantling the Facebook empire has increased dramatically: from the NY times pledge by a former co-founder Chris Hughes ‘It’s Time to Break Up Facebook‘, calls to revitalize the old anti-trust laws (such as in ‘Steering with the Windshield Wipers‘ by Cory Doctorow). And all of this under increasing evidence that more or less voluntarily social networks such as Facebook have strongly influenced elections (listen to the TED talk about ‘Facebook role in Brexit and the threat to democracy‘).

One particular aspect that appears to be concerning and specific to Facebook is the unrestricted power of its founder Mark Zuckerberg (owning 60% of the voting shares) and thus the associated governance issues (things are a bit different in other internet companies). This is a particular strong point made by Chris Hughes in his column, and is quite noticeable.

Another strong aspect coming out of all this literature is the fact that certain free market ideology developing since the 1970s have made acting against monopolies less straightforward than before, and that it would be legally harder today to apply those principles.

I truly believe that sooner or later, some action will be taken against internet behemoths in the field of anti-monopoly. They might defend themselves and hire superb lawyers, one day will come where their dominance must be kept in check. Let’s hope it is not too far away.

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How to Overcome the Science Reproducibility Crisis

Following up on our previous post on “How Fake Science is Strongly on the Rise and Endangers Us“, the issue or reproducibility in science is also coming up strongly: even paper and findings recognized as legitimate for a long time are put in question by the inability to reproduce results, and more specifically in human sciences. This post ‘Why Your Company Needs Reproducible Research‘ provides a good summary of the issues at stake.

Recent efforts are reproducing psychology results lead to “Only about 40% of the findings could be successfully replicated, while the rest were either inconclusive or definitively not replicated.” Similar proportions are obtained in business-related research.

While this may be due to very human bias like the need to show some results from research, and the inherent complexity of the environment around some experiments, there is definitely a need for more thorough replication requirements prior to confirming results. This puts more challenge on researchers but is probably a need in a world that sees increasingly fake science.

Science will always progress by invalidating previous results or restraining the boundaries of validity of previous results. This is a normal process, still we need to be wary to ensure reproducibility of results before they are spread as invariant truths.

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