Innovation I: the perils of ignoring #data & optimality:
Companies that improve products, services, & operations based on what data is telling them are handsomely rewarded for their efforts through a satisfied customer base. When this is done exceptionally well, we've seen an entire industry disrupted: budget air travel (Southwest Airlines, RyanAir), hotel reservations (Booking.com), search (Google), and retail (Amazon).
But, #Amazon 's successes are not limited to retail alone; it has disrupted the publishing industry and promises the same to grocers, devices, and data services. Whether or not one likes the results, the reality is that Amazon has optimised a huge part of the supply chain, and created enormous synergies between its operations. And it has done so by being customer obsessed and exceedingly data driven.
Those companies who ignore data & treat the search for optimality as too complex, are often left scrambling to pick up the pieces when their industry is exploded, wondering -- how did this happen to us?