Lots of talk about data these days. Even Warren Buffet, who is notorious for avoiding IPOs, is getting in on the action. Plenty of consultancies and product companies are encouraging organizations to leverage data: Build a lake, leverage AI, get some machines to do some learning (ML). Getting data is just one piece of the challenge. You may even find a nugget that proves super valuable and you are still no where near the finish line. Not many delve into the difficulty of implementing recommendations that come from untapped data.

Rather than focusing on how much data you have or could have, it may make more sense to focus on what you could or more importantly, would do with data you do not have today. What business outcome do you want to drive? Without this key piece of information and buy in from leadership, all that data could go unused.

If you approached the leadership team of your organization and said, “if we spend an extra 5 cents on every sale, I can guarantee we will get an extra $5 from the customer,” how many of you would have an easy time making that pitch? On surface, it seems so simple, spend 5 cents and get 500 cents in return. That is a 9,900% ROI.

Implementation is not so simple. First, you have to get the 5 cents from somewhere (harder to do these days than ever). Second, you have to sell the idea internally – there will be plenty of healthy and probably some not so healthy skepticism. Third, you have to actually implement. Fourth, you have to measure. And finally, you need to prove the results. Many data driven efforts do not make it past step 1. Most do not make it past step 2.

What are your thoughts about the data conversation these days? Should you go out and get all the data you can and then figure out what you are going to do with it at a later date?