How we turn Big Data into Big Ideas

Is backward the new way-forward?
 
The Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard wrote: “Life is lived forward but understood backward.”
Today, organizations sought after smart insights as they look for ways to strap up and spin enormous amount of raw data. With this move of ‘understanding businesses backward’, big data is bent to analyze, monitor and predict outcomes at the speed of light. The highlights being the competitive advantage that big data exploitation renders to its user – outperform your competition by ‘knowing’ your business inside out, or should I say backwards?
Any data would be good – be it video, images/content from sensors, social and mobile devices – but would it be good enough is the question. The magic lies not in the big data, but instead the big idea that stands behind the curtain conjuring up the trick. There’s a spark – a personalized, entrepreneurial and even idiosyncratic spark – that leads to the creation of successful businesses. Genius is in the big ideas, not about the big data.
 
A ‘Penny’ for a thought

The phrase ‘Big data’ is being taken for granted and used profusely, when it’s not just meaningless technical jargon. This addiction is causing a serious moral hazard: dwelling on the past so much that dreaming about the future seems trifling.
George Gilder wrote in Forbes:
Knowledge is about the past; entrepreneurship is about the future. If creativity was not unexpected, governments could plan it and socialism would work. But creativity is intrinsically surprising and the source of all real profit and growth.”

Many a business are smart to bring out the genius to play with the big data. Say for example, the uncanny ability of Netflix to recommend movies that the audience find amusing, or the book recommendations from Amazon that seem to just know our next pick off the shelf. The marketing and advertising activity has metamorphosed with its supernatural ability to target consumers in incredible ways, using our very favorite ‘big data’.
Netflix has successfully reverse engineered Hollywood and solved the case of ‘what to watch next’ very well. Combining the powers of machine and human intelligence has resulted in overall serendipity. Netflix is on top of the unprecedented data in the world of Hollywood – creating nearly 76,897 micro-genres.
 
Big Ideas to put Big Data to use

When big data is turned to big ideas, acute progress is seen in companies.  Stepping away from the reckoning mainstream of data-driven knowledge, and letting loose the genius, Ephlux has lucratively kindled big ideas.
Ephlux has worked on big ideas and employed big data to build on a remarkable project named Videonet. Created to explore challenges and provide opportunities for the TV Industry that is revolutionizing itself. With the growing on-demand content and multi-screen delivery, hybrid broadcasts and IP connections, only a great idea could bring strategic insight and fruitful analysis to enhance customer experience and improve the world of post-convergence television.
With in-depth industry reports (packaged within e-magazines distributed around key exhibitions), webcasts, webinars, video interviews and blogs, the entire TV ecosystem is witnessing thought leadership from senior executives.
Another feather in Ephlux’s cap is the website design for Seeflik, where the search for the next great filmmaker is going on. Seeflik holds a multitude of contests to help filmmakers showcase their work and build an online presence, giving them a rich exposure. Ephlux created the ‘big idea’ website which allows contestants to watch, learn, connect and finally compete to win the award.
Everyone must have come across the frustrating situation where they had to wait for a while (the clock for patience runs on a different quartz!) before getting a table at a restaurant. Ephlux had an idea of the wearisome wait and designed a predictive app where customers could book their tables in advance. The idea didn’t stop there because deciding on the order and waiting to be served after seating at the table is another story in itself. So, with this blessed app, customers could book their tables and decide on their orders in advance, saving them the wait of it all and allowing them to tantalize their taste-buds pronto.
With big ideas shaping the world of big data, we are to see new and improved features in everything we do. Like Earl Nightingale said, “Everything begins with an idea.”