Background: In 1997, I was working for IBM as a Sales Specialist in the field of "Business Intelligence". I was essentially selling extremely advanced data mining software solutions. What exactly is that? Heuristic software programs invented by big brains that would automatically sift through reams of data and come up with both correlated and then cause-and-effect conclusions that simply couldn't be picked up by humans. Simply put this was very expensive software created and run by very expensive people [$400/hr plus travel and living] a la big-brained statisticians, computer engineers, and mathematics Ph.Ds.
IBM sold this software and these people to large Bank/Finance/Insurance companies, Governments (especially ones with a large military industrial complexes, for example) and Telcos. It was and remains a killer-advantage for the select few. Mind-blowing and mind-numbing all at the same time.
A lot has happened since then, not all good, most notably an explosion of online transactional and behavioral activity including, for a select few, the capturing and mining of this now unimaginable amount of data. This trend continues today with the move to what is sometimes heard in the media as "Big Data". Let me ask you. How are you making out there?
The quoted post below captures one woman's take on the matter when it comes to SMBs and their need to compete, fend-off, and fight back.
Elaine Ossipov, An average american woman. Suggest Bio
Analytics for the Small Business Market
I have spent the last several months trying various software for comprehensive analytics for small business owners.
There are many tools out there which will yield wonderful analytics, but there are None out there which can/will provide these much needed tools at a rate a small business owner can afford. The {SMB} Cottage industry has no chance to even come close to affording what is on the market.
According to this report by intuit
There are 27+ Million Small Businesses in the US.Between 60% & 80% of all new jobs created in our country can be attributed to Small Business.
I personally believe the rate of failure within the first five years of a small business could be diminished significantly if these tools were available to them along with the training they need to understand them and put them to use. I realize what I am asking here is for the "WalMart of Analytics". But this is a market that is wide open.~elaine.
If you are an SMB executive or business owner and you're feeling threatened by the notion that even the largest players are still after growth and that their growth requirements may, by comparison, make yours look a little underwhelming, then your grasp on strategic thinking related to the reality of "stealth" competitive threats is worthy of note. Good for you. After reading my conclusion below, please feel free to reach out and discuss further how to put information to work for your own economic health and well-being.
CONCLUSION
When larger players decide to pursuit growth there are basically two approaches - acquire smaller players or simply move in and make the smaller players go away (kill them over time). So, on the one hand, the acquisition strategy by your bigger national competitor may be a good thing for you as a regional SMB business owner (or equity stakeholder executive). Simply, bigger national companies buying smaller regional players could be a great thing for your personal exit strategy. Conversely, and what is devastating for such an exit strategy, is larger national entities getting their heads around and then their hands on - there are ways to buy this stuff - relevant data and then turning that data into information, in real-time business intelligence terms, in order to turn knowledge into action in order to move in and crush the smaller players and effectively, over time, watch those once-thriving owners and executives wither away.
If you're interested in speaking further to discuss your business intelligence strategy, I'd be happy to take your call.
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