Google trends show that the level of creation in business intelligence data has slowed over the last five years and that there is a sudden upswing in what industry calls “big data.”  Big data is an aggregate of structured business intelligence data combined with available unstructured data from places like social media outlets, online articles, customer ratings and scoring mechanisms such as Amazon’s rating system.  Big data has become a new tool in the toolbox of corporate risk executives for determining the factors that might jeopardize the success and security of a company and its products and services.

AGE OF INFORMATION
In today’s age of information and access, companies are faced with many challenges to managing and protecting the brands that they have put so much effort into building.  Risks come from all over the world and in many forms, from customer feedback and ratings to new regulations to supply chain issues picked up by NGOs such as worker rights, ethical sourcing, and fire and factory safety.  Protecting your company’s brand has become complex as more people around the world now have easy access to data that helps them make decisions as well as share their experiences with others.

It’s not big data that scares people.  It’s the amount of data available that presents the risk. One metric that is making many companies pay attention is the fact that in 2014 there were over 1 billion tweets sent every three days.¹  Is it humanly possible to stand guard for your company and just watch what consumers say about your products and services only on Twitter?

One way of staying ahead of the curve and out of harm’s way is to leverage the emerging technologies in big data aggregation and predictive modeling.  Big data has many uses and although it sounds like the latest buzz word, there is value in learning more about how to leverage the technology to safeguard your brand.  Predictive modeling is also about taking a broad view across all available data sources worldwide and building a picture of the possible outcomes for future situations and scenarios.

In years past, companies relied on the information stored in their internal business intelligence systems in order to determine how they might increase profits and build new lines of business.  Collective thinking and consumer behavior was not easily accessible or able to be discerned accurately on a global scale.  Most certainly, the amount of resources needed to collect and compute the available data was far out of scope and budget. Leaving either money or risk on the table.

Let’s look at an example.  If company X launched a new marketing campaign and wanted to find out how well it was being received and whether or not they needed to increase production, how would they have done it in the past?

We know they would have done consumer surveys, watched promotions at stores, and targeted which inventory lines were being replenished the quickest.  Of course, there is a much more detailed science to this which includes a larger list of measurements and metrics.  However, speed is of the essence.  Taking on this effort through traditional means would have taken many man days, been quite costly, and by the time the company could figure out if they launched the right product, they most likely would have missed an opportunity to ramp up inventory or worse prevent a recall.

Today, using big data technologies to aggregate social media and keywords, companies can easily determine what social trends are hot, what consumers are buying, and the associated sentiment ratings (how many stars) all within hours and without hiring personnel.  They can compare traditional media impact with social media impact and determine the value of their advertising.  They could switch marketing campaigns and position their products out in the market to the consumers who want and need them most.  This helps with the traditional metrics of forecasting supply and demand, as well as, limiting or expanding production runs, and getting an early warning detection system for potential backlash or recalls.

It’s all about the data and the data is out there.

POWER OF UNSTRUCTURED DATA
In 2014 in just two days, more data was created than in all of 2003, according to Google Trends. 4/5^th of all data created was unstructured and growing at 15 times the rate of structured enterprise data. ²   If your company is only looking at structured data, you’re missing out on a much bigger opportunity. Why not leverage the 4/5^th by implementing big data algorithms and technologies?

It’s important to have eyes and ears everywhere and that means listening to social media, grouping keywords from trending articles and ratings, and trolling through mountains of enterprise data in order to find the anomalies and opportunities.  Why not automate the process?  The world is creating data faster than ever before and more accessible outside the company walls.  Your company’s future roadmaps are hidden in big data anomalies, trends, feedback, and numbers.  Consumers are already telling you what you want to hear. It’s all waiting for you.

Bio:

Kelly Eisenhardt is Co-Founder and Managing Director at BlueCircle Advisors, an environmental compliance and sustainability consulting and training firm based in Massachusetts (www.bluecircleadvisors.com.)  In her role at BlueCircle Advisors, she is responsible for providing business intelligence, strategy and implementation of environmental, social and governance (ESG) risk programs.  Her experience aligns well with her client’s needs for technology, compliance, and sustainability expertise by helping companies create and manage their corporate environmental and social responsibility programs.

To contact Kelly Eisenhardt, send emails to kelly.eisenhardt@bluecircleadvisors.com or follow her on Twitter @KelEisenhardt.  For more information about BlueCircle Advisors and the company’s products and services, please visit www.bluecircleadvisors.com, on Facebook at BlueCircle Advisors, on Twitter @OurBlueCircle, and on the LinkedIn group at the BlueCircle Advisors group.