Data - The New Raw Material

COVID - 19 pandemic has taught us invaluable life lessons in such a short span of time that sometimes we revisit our memory lane to refresh those lessons again. The pandemic has literally changed how we live, work and socialize. While every economic activity almost came to a halt, one thing we all would agree did not stop and kept us hooked, made us delighted and sorrowful sometimes was internet and the access of IT-enabled devices to almost each and every individual on the planet.

In fact, the whole world got benefitted immensely due to access and sharing of data. In spite of the suddenness of the epidemic, we did very well in terms of identifying behaviour of virus, discovery of treatments and preventive mechanism. Sometimes we were proved right, sometimes we were wrong, but the data was coonstatnly being analysed and processed in real time. Governments, Global health organizations, Academic Research centers, and Corporates came together to develop new ways information can be aggregated and used virtually.

The process of digitization was already advancing in every sphere of human activity before the pandemic and COVID just accelerated the process manifold. During the COVID, companies realized most of the processes can be performed virtually in a much better and smooth manner. Customers also prefer to scroll the available options and communicate virtually rather than visiting stores.

It not only saves cost but has the potential to add to the customer benefits. Realizing this, companies are investing hugely into IT and data processing operations, millions of start-ups, whose business model is totally dependent on technology are flourishing are now unicorns in their respective fields. . We have seen how the ZOMATO and other aggregators are reaping the benefits of being pioneers in this area. As per a report by Economic times 83% of India's data-driven companies are more resilient and confident during the pandemic than non-data-driven companies (The Economic Times, 2020).

If we look at the business domain of top companies from the list of fortune 500 companies we will find that companies whose business is based on data generation and processing as the key solution offers to the customer are among the most valued.

We as a customer are continuously generating data for the companies whenever we visit any social media websites, surf YouTube or dedicated website of the companies. We are leaving digital footprints, which are bought, sold, and traded like a commodity. So, data is the new commodity, new currency, or new gold. Data helps the Companies to identify trends patterns and tastes of the customers and they are able to offer customized solutions.

Companies that are vigilant and focused to serve the customers, can change their supply chain patterns depending upon the likings or dislikes of the customers.

In future, data generation and data processing is going to be the key function in every company because no organization would like to be left behind in the digital age. Industry 4.0 is characterized by the usage of deep learning, machine learning, and Artificial intelligence, cloud and SaaS (Software as a service). This has the potential to provide a lot of insights to corporations regarding new innovations and product developments.

Manager’s jobs in the organization are always about decision making and if managers are well-equipped with the data, decision making is going to be smooth and error-free most of the time.

So data is becoming the new raw material, demand for data scientists, or data analytics is surely going to boom.

Keeping this development in mind, the Lexicon Management Institute of Leadership and Excellence, Pune has started the specialization in Research and Business Analytics (RBA), which makes our PGDM student day zero professionals.