Too Big to Ignore: The Business Case for Big Data (Wiley and SAS Business Series) - Hardcover

Simon, Phil

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1118638174 ISBN 13: 9781118638170

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, 2013

Synopsis

Residents in Boston, Massachusetts are automatically reporting potholes and road hazards via their smartphones. Progressive Insurance tracks real-time customer driving patterns and uses that information to offer rates truly commensurate with individual safety. Google accurately predicts local flu outbreaks based upon thousands of user search queries. Amazon provides remarkably insightful, relevant, and timely product recommendations to its hundreds of millions of customers. Quantcast lets companies target precise audiences and key demographics throughout the Web. NASA runs contests via gamification site TopCoder, awarding prizes to those with the most innovative and cost-effective solutions to its problems. Explorys offers penetrating and previously unknown insights into healthcare behavior. How do these organizations and municipalities do it? Technology is certainly a big part, but in each case the answer lies deeper than that. Individuals at these organizations have realized that they don't have to be Nate Silver to reap massive benefits from today's new and emerging types of data. And each of these organizations has embraced Big Data, allowing them to make astute and otherwise impossible observations, actions, and predictions. It's time to start thinking big. In Too Big to Ignore, recognized technology expert and award-winning author Phil Simon explores an unassailably important trend: Big Data, the massive amounts, new types, and multifaceted sources of information streaming at us faster than ever. Never before have we seen data with the volume, velocity, and variety of today. Big Data is no temporary blip of fad. In fact, it is only going to intensify in the coming years, and its ramifications for the future of business are impossible to overstate. Too Big to Ignore explains why Big Data is a big deal. Simon provides commonsense, jargon-free advice for people and organizations looking to understand and leverage Big Data. Rife with case studies, examples, analysis, and quotes from real-world Big Data practitioners, the book is required reading for chief executives, company owners, industry leaders, and business professionals.

About this title

About the Author

PHIL SIMON is a sought-after keynote speaker and the author of five management books, including the award-winning The Age of the Platform. A recognized technology expert, he consults with companies on how to optimize their use of technology. His contributions have been featured on NBC, CNBC, ABC News, Inc. magazine, BusinessWeek, the Huffington Post, the Globe and Mail, Fast Company, Forbes, the New York Times, ReadWriteWeb, and many other sites. He holds degrees from Carnegie Mellon University and Cornell University. His website is www.philsimon.com and his Twitter handle is @philsimon.

From the Back Cover

Praise for Too Big to Ignore

"As more and more entrepreneurs, investors, and customers talk about Big Data, it gets harder and harder to understand what the phrase actually means. Phil Simon does a great job defining it and making a clear business case for the ideas that are typically incorporated into the phrase 'Big Data.' Ignore this book at your own peril."
Brad Feld, Managing Director, Foundry Group; author of Startup Communities: Building an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in Your City

"Simon's book provides a very valuable primer to the increasingly important world of Big Data what it is, what it isn't, and how it is being used and potentially abused. Anyone wishing to get up to speed quickly on the big ideas and big players behind Big Data will benefit greatly from reading this practical, down-to-earth book."
Robert Charette, President, ITABHI Corporation

"In Too Big to Ignore, Phil Simon takes the mystique out of Big Data. He weaves the human, technical, and organizational requirements for success into an accessible book for all of us."
Professor Terri L. Griffith, PhD, author of The Plugged-In Manager

"In the tradition of Malcolm Gladwell and Chris Anderson, Simon takes a complex topic and makes you think about it differently through real-world storytelling that resonates."
Jay Baer, coauthor of The Now Revolution: 7 Shifts to Make Your Business Faster, Smarter, and More Social

"Phil Simon gets that business executives are no longer content with roll-up reports and summarized spreadsheets they want detailed, consumable information in order to make fact-based decisions about their companies and customers. Too Big to Ignore provides a comprehensive overview of the Big Data trend, detailing the new components of Big Data."
Jill Dyché, Vice President of SAS Best Practices, author of The CRM Handbook

From the Inside Flap

Residents in Boston, Massachusetts, are automatically reporting potholes and road hazards via their smartphones. Google accurately predicts local flu outbreaks based upon thousands of user search queries. Amazon provides remarkably insightful, relevant, and timely product recommendations to its hundreds of millions of customers. NASA runs contests via the gamification site TopCoder, awarding prizes to those with the most innovative and cost-effective solutions to its problems.

How do these organizations and municipalities do it? Technology is certainly a big part, but in each case the answer goes deeper than that. Individuals at these organizations have realized that they don't have to be Nate Silver to reap massive benefits from analyzing today's new and emerging types of data. And each of these organizations has embraced Big Data, allowing them to make astute and otherwise impossible observations, actions, and predictions.

It's time to start thinking big.

In Too Big to Ignore, recognized technology expert and award-winning author Phil Simon explores an unassailably important trend: Big Data?the massive amounts, new types, and multifaceted sources of information streaming at us faster than ever. Never before have we seen data with the volume, velocity, and variety of today. Big Data is no temporary blip of fad. In fact, it is only going to intensify in the coming years, and its ramifications for the future of business are impossible to overstate.

Realizing the importance of Big Data is one thing, but how are organizations today actually harnessing its power? Too Big to Ignore answers that question in spades.

Simon provides commonsense, jargon-free advice for people and organizations looking to understand and leverage Big Data. Rife with case studies, examples, analysis, and quotes from real-world Big Data practitioners, the book is required reading for chief executives, company owners, industry leaders, and business professionals.

Edition details

• Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
• Publication date: 2013
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1118638174
• ISBN 13: 9781118638170
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 256