How much is 5 + 6 ? Ask three different people that question. If that
question was a job you needed to fill who would you hire and how
much would you pay them. It doesn’t matter does it, the answer is
always going to be the same. There’s no differentiation from one person
to another so you’d pay the least possible to get that job done.
Next, what does each number represent and how did you find that out. Ah, that’s slightly deeper work that requires some important skills and analytics. You’d hire the person with the best track record for delving into the analysis of the field and pay them the market rate.
Next, what does each number represent and how did you find that out. Ah, that’s slightly deeper work that requires some important skills and analytics. You’d hire the person with the best track record for delving into the analysis of the field and pay them the market rate.
Finally, tell me the real story behind the 5 and 6 and deliver it as a 20
minute movie on a Blu-ray disk. That’s even deeper, combining an
historical reference of some depth, an analyst’s insight into the
relevance of the past and the direction for future action with a
storytellers skill in organizing that information and conveying it back to
us. Who to hire would be based on the total quality experience and its
usefulness. We might pay quite a lot to get it right because not only can
we benefit directly from the information about the numbers we can also
use the story itself. It’s no longer just analytics, it’s also an experience
and one that everyone can understand.
You don’t want to be one of the three people back at the beginning just building the same answer. They’re in a race to the bottom, undercutting each other selling the exact same product.
The middle group is just that, they’re analytic middlemen stuck in a marketplace economy in competition with each other over reputations, referrals and analytic speed.
The final group are independent contractors that may be singular entities or collections of people working toward the same goal. The quality or valuation of the product is based on both their insights about data and their artistic skills at storytelling and presentations; it’s an artistic entrepreneurial skill set – the art of producing the insightful deep-structure story/experience.
We want to be in that last group. It’s a more intricate job, but much more interesting and we think, much more sustainable into the future as everything around us changes. We would prefer to be in the business of telling stories about the meaning of the numbers, not shuffling them. If you’re not in a high-value-added job, one with creativity as a significant part of the process, then you’re in a race to the bottom or maybe even in competition with a digital version of yourself.
We understand that you would have to at least understand the analytic process, though not necessarily run the numbers yourself. In fact that final value-added group would probably hire both of the other two groups to work for them, but end up keeping most of the profits. It’s the business side of the new liberal arts media education and that sound you hear is the future knocking on your door. Remember, just a few time zones away it’s already tomorrow.
gunther November 10, 2013
You don’t want to be one of the three people back at the beginning just building the same answer. They’re in a race to the bottom, undercutting each other selling the exact same product.
The middle group is just that, they’re analytic middlemen stuck in a marketplace economy in competition with each other over reputations, referrals and analytic speed.
The final group are independent contractors that may be singular entities or collections of people working toward the same goal. The quality or valuation of the product is based on both their insights about data and their artistic skills at storytelling and presentations; it’s an artistic entrepreneurial skill set – the art of producing the insightful deep-structure story/experience.
We want to be in that last group. It’s a more intricate job, but much more interesting and we think, much more sustainable into the future as everything around us changes. We would prefer to be in the business of telling stories about the meaning of the numbers, not shuffling them. If you’re not in a high-value-added job, one with creativity as a significant part of the process, then you’re in a race to the bottom or maybe even in competition with a digital version of yourself.
We understand that you would have to at least understand the analytic process, though not necessarily run the numbers yourself. In fact that final value-added group would probably hire both of the other two groups to work for them, but end up keeping most of the profits. It’s the business side of the new liberal arts media education and that sound you hear is the future knocking on your door. Remember, just a few time zones away it’s already tomorrow.
gunther November 10, 2013
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