For marketers, being able to use Big Data has long been a valuable skill. Understanding how to segment and describe different sectors of your customer base is the first step in providing them with a customized experience, and it takes a keen awareness of numbers to compete in today's digital marketplace. In fact, research firm Circle Research estimates that more than 80 percent of marketing professionals have turned to analytics in some way.
Now, those same skills are becoming more and more valuable for executives.
Big Data is no longer just about how to reach consumers most effectively. Now, it's also suffused throughout every aspect of running a business. In the past, learning how to use FileMaker might have been the domain of a single middle-manager. These days, however, these sorts of skills are becoming more germane to what it means to be a CEO.
In an interview with Marketing Magazine UK, Drew Nicholson, the chief executive of dnx, describes the importance of these capabilities for top-level executives.
"CMO's have been given the biggest opportunity they've had in 50 years. Data will give them insights and opportunities that they've never had before, but they have to do it well or they won't gain stature. If they use the wrong data then they'll lose credibility," said Nicholson.
Trying to decide the best person to lead your company? These days, the right candidate will need some facility with programs like FileMaker. If your organization is lacking in these sorts of skills, it's in danger of falling behind the curve.