CMOs: 3 Ways to Accelerate Big Data Analysis Transformation in Your Company

Big data is exciting. As a CMO, you know Big Data is becoming more and more critical to your business' success. As an IMC graduate student in Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications in Northwestern University, I’ve been doing some research in how traditional companies transform into a data-centric company, and here are two articles that best address the issue.

The first article, titled “Getting big impact from big data” by David Court and published in January 2015 talks about how to take advantage of advancements in analytics and mobilize the organization to make a big impact on the company from big data. New data analysis techniques and tools are introduced to deal with the challenge of achieving scale of impact. The real challenges lie beyond new tools, and ask for more focus on change management, more job redefinition, and more cultural change.

Another article talks about data transformation is by Derek Steer, the Co-Founder/CEO of MODE.  This article, titled “Building credibility for your analytics team- and why it matters”, published on January 21^st, 2015 focuses on how to build credibility for the analytics team in the company and over time turns the company into a data-centric firm. First start with simple tasks, then analyze and communicate effectively with colleagues, think data as a conversation starter, not a diagnosis, and make the process of data analysis transparent and understandable to other teams.

After reviewing these articles, and based on my experience through the IMC program, here are three action items any CMO or marketing manager should immediately begin to think about and take actions on:

• Start small - Start with simple tasks that give immediate returns. This establishes the trust and over time builds confidence in the company.

• Redefine jobs - Automating part of the jobs requires redefining job responsibilities to best leverage and support the ongoing development of big data.

• Change culture - Build a foundation of data-driven culture in the company by developing competitions that reward and recognize the teams that can generate powerful insights through analytics.

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I am currently a graduate student in Northwestern University Medill School, and major in Integrated Marketing and Communications. I will graduate in December 2015 and am looking for employments in data analytics. If there is anything you would like to discuss with me, you can reach me @AmeliaChenZhao on Twitter.