| | NOVEMBER 20208CIOReviewSince the iPhone first debuted, the pace of digital adoption by consumers and companies competing for their attention has continued to grow each year. In the retail space, access to data to compete well has been important since the first UPC scanner; big data has existed since the first Supply Chain ERP systems began allowing for localized assortments. And so in one sense, and I suspect this is true across most industry verticals, the need to drive business decisions with data isn't anything revolutionary. What the internet, mobile devices, and social media have allowed us to do though is not just to understand our customer within our four walls, but also understand our customers within their lives, where they are in their life journeys, where and what they aspire to be, what they care about, and how they want to be interacted with. Listening to millions of voices all talking at once is no easy task, though, and it takes key foundational pieces in a company's culture and talent to take advantage of what our customers are telling us and the world.In regards to culture, there is no way around it anymore; the cliché of being data-driven is true, but what is more apropos is to be data-obsessed. Who cares where we're driving with data if we already know the fuel (the data) feeding our car won't work.Before we even begin to look at what our customers are doing outside of our four walls, do we even know what they're doing inside and whether our processes and products are meeting their needs? A company that does not obsess about master data will eventually falter as employees churn and "tribal knowledge" walks out the door. This is not just an IT concern as relates to systems integrations; all aspects of a company have to understand that the information they put into many of a company's systems is eventually used to perform myriad analyses that direct company strategic direction, and so the old adage, "Garbage in, garbage out" is more impactful than ever. What is your CULTURE AND TALENT IN THE DIGITAL AGE­WHERE BEING DATA DRIVEN IS AN EMPTY CLICHÉ WITHOUT DATA OBSESSIONBy Sean MacCarthy, Executive Director Analytics & Segmentation, Claire's Inc.Sean MacCarthyIN MY OPINION
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