COVID came out of nowhere and upset the balance of pretty much everything. Back in February of 2019 things were proceeding normally, more or less. Then, countries around the world started locking down, one after the other. All of a sudden, people went from normal lives to in many cases not being allowed to leave their homes except to buy groceries once a week. While it never got that extreme in the United States, many businesses were curtailed, especially restaurants, theaters, and any other place where people would gather. That in turn had a significant effect on their suppliers. The net result has been a major shift in the global economy, the full effects of which likely won’t become fully apparent for years.
It’s no surprise that many businesses haven’t survived the turmoil. Tens of thousands have shut their doors for good. What is surprising is the number of businesses that have survived so far and those that have managed to thrive despite the unique circumstances that have been thrown at them. Those are businesses run by people who either already understood the importance of data or quickly learned to appreciate it. They were able to use technology and data to adapt to radically different circumstances.
Whether it be the restaurant that offered curbside pickup or outdoor seating, or the art instructor that added participation through Zoom as an option they’ve managed to turn those adverse circumstances into an opportunity.
Bigger businesses have naturally gotten involved as well. So much so that the executive position of Chief Data Officer (CDO) is becoming increasingly common. These executives have a difficult job not just in terms of organizing the acquisition and analysis of data but also in justifying the return on investment (ROI) that comes from all of that data. That last bit can of course be the most difficult because the benefits of all of that data are sometimes hard to quantify. Indeed, if not managed properly, there won’t actually be any benefits. How to navigate that particular minefield? The CDO of course needs to be able to show how the reach of their efforts is often greater than what is obvious. One successful interaction can lead to many more and it is the job of the CDO to make sure that the extended reach can be shown, to acquire that data and process it into a format that the other executives can readily grasp.
This is where issues often arise. Responding to the pressure that comes with that position can lead CDOs or whoever is in charge of the data to be tempted to get as much as they can, however they can. That can lead to all kinds of ethical issues in acquiring that data. We’ve seen a number of examples of that in this space over the last few months and there are many others. People are often tricked into giving up their data unwittingly or in other cases it’s just taken outright with no chance whatsoever for the individual to provide consent. It’s a kind of digital theft and it is a major problem for people’s rights around the world.
What should they do then? One option that we would obviously like to propose is that they sign up on TARTLE as a buyer. That way these businesses, large or small can connect directly with individuals who are using or might use their products and services. Then the CDO can be sure that they are getting their information with the consent of people which in turn ensures that it is more accurate than anything else that could be gathered through any other method. TARTLE also allows buyers access to something that no algorithm can possibly touch, the why. Why do people do the things they do? Why does one marketing campaign work while another doesn’t? Yes, we know companies learn these things through focus groups. But how much time does that take? Wouldn’t you rather get your information faster, almost in real time? I know I would. That’s what TARTLE offers, accurate, near real-time data that is gathered with the full consent of the individual. That’s a much better world, one that is responsive and honest.
What’s your data worth? Sign up and join the TARTLE Marketplace with this link here.
One option that we would obviously like to propose is that they sign up on TARTLE as a buyer. That way these businesses, large or small can connect directly with individuals who are using or might use their products and services.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Welcome to TARTLE Cast with your hosts, Alexander McCaig, and Jason Rigby, where humanities steps into the future, and source data defines the path.
Alexander McCaig (00:17):
Oh, what's crackalackin everybody,-
Jason Rigby (00:26):
What's up, Alex?
Alexander McCaig (00:27):
... wherever everybody is that chooses to listen to us?
Jason Rigby (00:30):
Everybody plays the fool.
Alexander McCaig (00:31):
Everybody.
Jason Rigby (00:34):
Sometimes.
Alexander McCaig (00:35):
Oh man, I spent about 15 minutes playing the didgeridoo last night, it's like the opening door of our shark shells.
Jason Rigby (00:43):
Yeah, exactly.
Alexander McCaig (00:44):
It really catches your attention, I think it does.
Jason Rigby (00:46):
Yeah. I love the...
Alexander McCaig (00:47):
The primordial sound.
Jason Rigby (00:48):
Yeah. I love it.
Alexander McCaig (00:49):
Yeah. That's what we're bringing it back to, bringing people back to the source.
Jason Rigby (00:53):
Speaking of catching people's attention, that's what all these companies are out there doing.
Alexander McCaig (00:58):
All they want is attention.
Jason Rigby (01:00):
All they want is attention, that's all we want and not to be ambiguous, but looking back over the past year, when we look at companies and we look at this crisis, that's what they're calling it, and then surviving the crisis we see, and this is something that maybe in a macro view, we see technology coming in, and saving the world basically during this crisis, because if we didn't have this ability to adapt this adaption to the solution.
Alexander McCaig (01:36):
The solution is always adaptation.
Jason Rigby (01:39):
Yes, exactly. But if we didn't have this rapid migration to cloud, if we didn't have support for remote workers, if we didn't say, "Okay, we're hopping on, we're going to do these digital marketing," we would have had it far worse.
Alexander McCaig (01:54):
Really? So is it technology that saved us, or was it that humans need a little something to shake them up? This is how I look at this, the big seven that we focus on are macro things, and for a lot of people, they're out of sight out of mind, but COVID came a little close to home, and at that point they're like, "Oh, we got to do something about it." I mean, you can sit here in New Mexico, 6,000 feet up in the sky, and not worry about sea level rise, right?
Jason Rigby (02:28):
Yes.
Alexander McCaig (02:28):
But COVID is right here at your front door, see what I mean? It's literally knocking saying, "Can I come in for Thanksgiving?"
Jason Rigby (02:33):
Yeah, it doesn't care if it's 6,000 feet or zero.
Alexander McCaig (02:35):
It doesn't. So when you take something that's a global thing, and you bring it right to the person's front door, in front of their eyes and you make it a part of their life, then that's when people start to effectuate with action upon it. And technology was just one of these things where people were like, "Okay, well, how do we now use technology not just for an economical standpoint, for economic gain, but," your mic, "How do we use technology to actually come in here and save a life, how do we bring focus to it?" Now that it's affecting me, I'm starting to pay attention to it. That's what it is, it's bringing that sort of awareness. Much like these people want attention, well, the virus demanded attention so that we focus on this global issue.
Jason Rigby (03:20):
Yeah. And this article data, here's the title, data and analytics, delivering clarity at a time of great uncertainty.
Alexander McCaig (03:29):
Well, yeah, listen, the uncertain part for people is, how do we track this, and then how long is it going to be around for, and how large is it going to be, right? And so, if you have a collective effort of people coming together and assimilating this data collectively, well, then you have the ability to solve it. So if we look at what TARTLE is talking about with our big seven, it's about the collective power of all of our data coming together to solve these large issues. And it might not be on your doorstep, but it's on somebody else's doorstep, whether or not you see it, and that's the focus in data allows for that clarity into these things that are otherwise ignored.
Jason Rigby (04:09):
Yeah. And in light of this, Don Carlos outlines three key data and analytics trends that will characterize the most forward thinking businesses in 2021.
Alexander McCaig (04:18):
And what are those trends?
Jason Rigby (04:19):
And I actually like this list, we're going to get really technical now, we're kind of getting a little micro. Quantifying the true value of ROI, the focal point of quantifying ROI is so business can prioritize investment, but in reality it can be quite hard for data and analytics initiatives. This is because some of the impacts are direct such as time saved by automating repetitive tasks where the others are less tangible, for example, the impact of making quicker and/or better decisions. However, this should not be to turn to quantifying impact because the thought process required for the quantification can itself give benefit. So what I want to ask you, Alex, is, and we do this at TARTLE, we're always looking at true value of ROI, and this I think is hugely important, me coming from a CMO side of things, when it comes to digital marketing, you can quickly spend a lot of money very fast without knowing what the hell you're doing.
Alexander McCaig (05:09):
Yeah, that's correct, but that's just to see what the direct impact is, but we know very well how decentralized this world's becoming. So it's not about the direct thing, it's about all the indirect effects that are also happening. So you have to think about, if I spend a dollar to deliver a message in front of someone, well, does that message then have an indirect effect of them delivering that message to all their family members?
Jason Rigby (05:33):
That makes sense, yes.
Alexander McCaig (05:34):
Does that $1 spent have seven times magnitude beyond what I can see, what the data is showing? That's an important understanding that we need to look at, because if you only look at the direct things, you'll only have 50% of that picture, right?
Jason Rigby (05:47):
Yeah, that's so true.
Alexander McCaig (05:48):
But with that microcosm of those individuals, well, it's like, what are the indirect effects that are currently happening? And you have to focus on those also. So when we represent that to show that in a visual format, we have this thing called the [T-DEX 00:06:01] on TARTLE. So it shows you the systemic effects, direct and indirect effects of your data, and you sharing your earnings towards causes that you care about, or these things called the big seven. So then you can actually measure, or quantify direct and indirect ROI. And that ROI is that investment is, I'm investing in myself by taking control of my data, earning from it, and then sharing those earnings with the rest of the world so that I can solidify my future, and humanity's future at the same time. I want to stabilize these things, data can do it, but how do I measure direct and indirect? What's that impact look like?
Jason Rigby (06:37):
Yeah. And they said this, "Our opinion is before embarking on any data and analytics initiative, the range of likely benefits and business impacts should be discussed, understood to the extent possible measure and quantified." And this is what I like and I want people to understand this, "Our experience tells us investment is often mistakenly focused on the visible elements, such as front-end dashboards, rather than the behind the scenes elements such as robust data management."
Alexander McCaig (07:03):
Yeah. So consider this, our users are the people that are on TARTLE, not users, that sounds like a drug thing. The people that are on TARTLE, interacting with it, they see the system, they see the front-end, but they don't realize all the work, or indeed investment we've put into securing their data on the backend, because that's equally as important. And so again, it's about having this holistic view of the world, and what you need to invest your time and materials into.
Jason Rigby (07:33):
Yeah. And they say this, "Successful business leaders should have their desired outcomes front and center of any initiatives, and then build data and analytics initiatives around these to ensure stronger ROI." So it's getting... You see this so many times Alex, and we've talked about this 1,000 times, this hoarding of data, and collecting data with no real initiative.
Alexander McCaig (07:55):
Yeah, they don't, it's like, how do we look at this? During the gold rush, I just want as much as possible. Give it all to me, and if I don't have the gold yet, how much land can I buy up an own just on the hopes that there will be gold there?
Jason Rigby (08:12):
There will be gold, yes.
Alexander McCaig (08:13):
That's what it is. It's resource hoarding, it's materialism at its worst for no benefit to the collective, but maybe a slightly probable benefit to one. What good is that for this world? Absolutely nothing.
Jason Rigby (08:27):
Well, there's no ROI on it either, because now you're just collecting all this data, well, what are you doing with it?
Alexander McCaig (08:32):
What good is a return on an investment if it only helps one person? Your ROI should be like, what is your return to humanity, not your return to just me. And so when we look at things at TARTLE, what's the return for people across the globe?
Jason Rigby (08:45):
Yeah. So ours is ROH, return on humanity.
Alexander McCaig (08:49):
Oh, chief conscious marketing officer, return on humanity.
Jason Rigby (08:54):
Yeah, ROH.
Alexander McCaig (08:56):
What's your, ROH?
Jason Rigby (08:57):
Yeah, exactly. So that's quantifying the true value of data. Number two, is the rise of the chief data officer, the CDO. So companies are understanding.
Alexander McCaig (09:06):
Well, they understand the value in it now.
Jason Rigby (09:07):
Right. The position of CDO has evolved over time to brace analytics, and help facilitate digital transformation efforts. Today, the role has become much more aligned with strategic business objectives, responsible for a host of initiatives including revenue growth, cost optimization, and mitigating risks.
Alexander McCaig (09:23):
Wow. Good for you guys, you talked about all things that benefit you, and not everybody else.
Jason Rigby (09:26):
Yeah, and then because of this, we expect to see a rise in the decision data role. This is where a team or an individual takes responsibility for leveraging the insights extracted through data before analyzing and transferring the assigned to actual information, which can be used to aid business decision making. So now, you're looking at this maturity shift of saying, "Okay, yeah, that's cool, you're collecting all this data, and then you have all this and all these fancy reports, but you're the chief data officer, you're responsible for the data to generate," they're saying in ROI, but you're saying in ROH.
Alexander McCaig (10:00):
Something hopefully agnostic that we can make a decision off of?
Jason Rigby (10:03):
Yes, yeah.
Alexander McCaig (10:03):
Okay. No bias, nothing.
Jason Rigby (10:05):
And every company should be looking at that, I mean, whether you have a CIO, or a CDO.
Alexander McCaig (10:11):
You should hire some sort of nihilistic chief data officer.
Jason Rigby (10:15):
Yes, can you imagine?
Alexander McCaig (10:17):
Hire someone that doesn't care about the future of your company, and the only one who'll look at the data and see what it's saying?
Jason Rigby (10:22):
Yes. Yeah, that would be tough.
Alexander McCaig (10:24):
Do you care about what we do here? No. Perfect, you're hired.
Jason Rigby (10:26):
Yeah. So importantly, this role should be separate from IT, head of IT, or the CIO, with the best CDOs performing a hybrid role. Someone that understands how organizations work paired with commercial elements of the business, and understanding the end to the life cycle of data and analytical projects, that's one too. How many projects have you seen that are dead in the water, and they're just kicking the dead body over, and over, and over again?
Alexander McCaig (10:51):
All the time. Happens like... Remind me, how many times do you get to beat the dead horse? It's already dead. And did they say anything about morals or ethics for the CDO?
Jason Rigby (10:57):
No, we're moving on to number three.
Alexander McCaig (10:59):
Can you just read it again, can you read it again, anything for morals and ethics?
Jason Rigby (11:01):
No, there's nothing in here.
Alexander McCaig (11:02):
Yeah, that's what I thought.
Jason Rigby (11:03):
Yeah. So number three it's a smarter approach to data governance. While it's imperative data is handled in a safe and secure manner, an over-cautious approach camera's result and data being only made available to a minority of users.
Alexander McCaig (11:15):
What do you mean a minority? The data is the thing generated by those people.
Jason Rigby (11:20):
Yeah. But here's what they're talking about, good data governance is about liberating information so it can be shared in a secure and appropriate manner.
Alexander McCaig (11:28):
You know where you can do that? T-A-R-T-L-E.co.
Jason Rigby (11:31):
Yeah. And so, establishing a centralized curating governed source of nonsensitive data and a trust-based risk aware data sharing model.
Alexander McCaig (11:40):
Okay. First of all, trust-based that's in the past, because if you have a centralized authority you're required to have trust. The most efficient, perfectly decentralized system is one that is trust less. If these guys are trying to define what the future is, they're already talking about the past. That right there at the end is talking about them redesigning the past, that's what it is. We don't care about the past.
Jason Rigby (12:02):
Yeah, it's putting lipstick on a pig.
Alexander McCaig (12:05):
That's exactly right, thank you.
Jason Rigby (12:06):
So James includes, this guy that wrote this, there are many benefits to improving data analytics maturity levels including improved forecasting, generating better actionable insights, and heightening your understanding of competitors.
Alexander McCaig (12:18):
Can we stop forecasting?
Jason Rigby (12:19):
So this is a thing that I'm seeing in trends especially in marketing with data, it's this whole worrying about your competitor. And I interviewed somebody here recently, their whole business model is collecting data on competitors and then generating reports. And it's so funny how we get so preoccupied not with how we can be better as an organization, but how we can see what the competitive it is that our competitor is doing. And you're not going to see that a lot of times through data, it may be to the point that they've gotten a new CEO and he's a great leader.
Alexander McCaig (12:59):
Or it's a cultural thing.
Jason Rigby (13:01):
Yes, or it's a cultural thing, and the way that they're working with their clients, customers, whatever it may be, that alone, just that relationship that the sales staff have with their customer, that could be creating a greater ROI.
Alexander McCaig (13:18):
Yeah, or there's just the shape or design of their building makes people feel better when they sit inside and work there.
Jason Rigby (13:22):
Yeah, there's so many variables that are human centric that the data will not see unless you had boots on the ground.
Alexander McCaig (13:33):
So they'll just look at it in this competitive espionage standpoint, they have 20,000 workers, we have 40,000, they have four times the amount of sales, are their workers placed in special areas? That's not what it is. The key is to go buy a total data packet on their workers, ask their workers to say what's the secret sauce.
Jason Rigby (13:52):
Yeah, exactly. I mean, there's ways to do that, but you know as well as I do, we study history and with Alexander the Great, when they had issues with the elephants.
Alexander McCaig (14:03):
Oh, the elephants.
Jason Rigby (14:04):
So an elephant it's so menacing, it can move its trunk and it can crush people, it can stomp on them and so, the whole battle became a focus of these menacing elephants, which elephants in and of themselves, yeah, they had body armor on them, but there's a reason why they had body armor on, there's a way to attack an elephant, and to kill an elephant, I don't mean to be...
Alexander McCaig (14:32):
No, no, no, but we're talking in a historical sense, right?
Jason Rigby (14:35):
To kill an elephant, and instead they focused on how large the elephant, and what the elephant was doing instead of being strategic, and focusing on how can we eliminate the threat.
Alexander McCaig (14:45):
Or what's controlling the elephant.
Jason Rigby (14:46):
Yes.
Alexander McCaig (14:47):
So if you think about it, two examples here, Star Wars when they're on Hoth, you have the big AT-ATs, and here they're moving, tie the legs up, right? You can't do it on an elephant, elephants are too strong. But what you find is that, there was a person in this battle in India at the time, okay? It was one of the most gruesome battles that Alexander the Great had gone through. The horses didn't want to go there because it was too much trembling happening on the ground. The vibrations of the elephants actually stampeding around were bothering the so they're like, "We're not charging into it, can't do your classic pincer move."
Alexander McCaig (15:17):
So when they actually went up there, you had to look to the guy that was actually directing that elephant from on top of it, because when the elephant becomes undirected, it then becomes scared, right? Because if you're hurting the elephant and it doesn't have direction, well then the thing's going to turn around and run away, the whole collective of it. A mouse scares an elephant, all right? But if you have some guy controlling it, taking this elephant off on top rather than just letting it be itself, they're not going to sit here like some sort of command or conquest thing, they're not like a horse.
Jason Rigby (15:47):
Yeah. So Archer's getting to the point to where they're focusing on-
Alexander McCaig (15:49):
Point is focus on the thing that's controlling it not the elephant, and all this data, and these systems that they're talking about right now, are only focusing on the elephant and not the real controlling factor of all this stuff, right? They're looking at the secondary thing but not the primary source of it, and when he focused on the primary source, there was a change of tides during that battle.
Jason Rigby (16:07):
... And the primary source is tartle.co.
Alexander McCaig (16:10):
Yeah, it's tartle.co.
Jason Rigby (16:12):
And how can tartle.co be the primary source, I'm going to give you an example, and then I want you to share how they can? Tartle.co has the ability to be able to talk to whomever you want to talk to, to get a straight forward, honest, and truthful answer. I'm trying to be as plain as I can right now.
Alexander McCaig (16:31):
Yes, that's what it is.
Jason Rigby (16:32):
So whenever I can have pure direct communication, and find the real intent, not the fake intent, but the real intent of an action of a person, now, that data that I'm receiving is becoming valuable to me as a company.
Alexander McCaig (16:48):
Yeah, because if you have intent that one thing you didn't have in the first place, you look at that elephant and you don't really understand why it is in battle, but if you understand the person controlling it and their intent, now, you know why you're face to face with the trunk.
Jason Rigby (17:02):
Because people don't realize the elephant doesn't want to be in battle. The elephant wants to-
Alexander McCaig (17:07):
What's the last time you saw a herd of elephants that are like, "Let's go to war with a bunch of humans?"
Jason Rigby (17:11):
... It never happens, they want to be hanging out in the Serengeti.
Alexander McCaig (17:13):
It doesn't happen. If you agitate one them during heat, yes, it'll come and flip your Jeep when you're taking pictures in the Serengeti, but that's it, they're not walking around, and stomping on your body making you go squish, squish into the ground.
Jason Rigby (17:24):
They don't have this desire to just kill humans all the time.
Alexander McCaig (17:26):
No, no.
Jason Rigby (17:27):
So there is human controlling that's making them do that. And when we look at data, you can see the same, that's why I wanted to use this example because there's so many parallels to it, but you can see this same ability in the way companies are taking data. Data's the elephant, and they're taking this elephant, and trying to maneuver it into a battle that it doesn't want to be it.
Alexander McCaig (17:49):
Yeah. So what is the intent of your algorithms, and what's the intent of your decision-making, okay? We know who's the progenitor of this data, people, all right? So the question is, what are you going to do with these good people, consider that they are the elephants, are you going to control them, or are you going to let them be who they are? Let them be the elephants, let them graze in the Serengeti, and just observe it agnostically, non-dogmatically, and don't control them, okay? Have a better intent about it, respect that. And if you want truthful information without having them manipulate, you do that by going to TARTLE.
Jason Rigby (18:24):
And how do they go to TARTLE?
Alexander McCaig (18:25):
You go to, T-A-R-T-L-E.co, and you click on, get started.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
Thank you for listening to TARTLE Cast with your hosts, Alexander McCaig and Jason Rigby, where humanity steps into the future, and the source data defines the path. What's your data worth?
