Following the previous post about what computers can and can’t do, let’s go to the specifics. Fortunately during the last years it has become clear that Data Science has huge capabilities for changing the way we are doing business. One of those cases is programmatic buying. The programmatic platforms have completely changed the way brands invest their media budget and optimize their results. However it is really important to understand that’s behind the scenes in order to really understand what can and what can’t expect from Programmatic buying. What’s programmatic buying: Programmatic buying refers to the technology that allow investing the media budgets through real time
Continue readingHumans vs computers and the consciousness challenge.
Some time ago I was invited to the Webcongress Colombia to talk about the future of Data and how Data can transform the world. It was more than 1,300 professionals expecting to talk about the latest advances in technology. Most of the people I was talking with was really optimistic about what a computers can (and can’t) do. My normal answer is “Computers are stupid and bureaucratic at creating but they work amazingly good at repeating things. On the opposite humans really good at creating but very clumsy at repeating things”. As I wrote in my book Meta Analytics, repetitive
Continue readingLanding to Webcongress Bogota with the lastest news on Big Data Analytics
Ouali did it again. He is putting together more than 1200 people from the digital marketing industry in one just one place to talk about the latest news and techniques. Webcongress had become the main tech event and I’m pleased to tell you that again, I’m part of it. I have the pleasure of joining a panel with Mónica María Zuluaga, Marketing Director at Caracol Televisión to discuss how Big Data Analytics is changing the way we market our products. I will also be presenting information on the level of evolution of the Latin American market in general and the Colombian market in
Continue readingHolistic (reductionist) vs Systemic approach of organizations and its impact in goals and metrics
We were talking a lot about the importance of considering companies as what they are, systems. Years of an holistic (Reductionist) approach of organizations generated a huge negative impact. The holistic approach, the scientific attempt to provide explanation of complex things in terms of ever smaller entities, says that if you have a company (system) and you separate it into its parts, then you improve each of its parts and put them back together you will have a better company (or system). The result of this thought was: 1. Independence between departments: If we think that we can have a
Continue readingHow to develop a micro-conversions measurement environment
Is much easier to achieve a long term objetive if you break it into short term goals. There’s a big difference in arriving to your office with the pressure of increasing your revenues in 20% than arriving to your office with a list of 5 simple tasks you have to perform in order to drive the company 2% closer to its objetive. Right? It’s great having a long term vision. You have to have it, but that’s something to be defined by the C level since they are in charge of the company vision. Once that the future is clear
Continue readingThe illogical behavior is finally very logical
Norbert Wiener, who is credited with being the discoverer of cybernetics, called teleological systems to those that have their behaviour regulated by a negative feedback. Negative feedback occurs when some function of the output of a system, process, or mechanism is fed back in a manner that tends to reduce the fluctuations in the output, whether caused by changes in the input or by other disturbances. The first and fundamental revelation in this regard is the provided by Darwin with the theory of natural selection, showing how a blind mechanism can produce order and adaptation. In the case of the
Continue readingThe objetive and the real objetive
Since companies are systems, and systems are a set of objects interacting together with a common objetive, the most important thing to understand companies is that objetive. The objetive is everything to understand how a company works, because it defines the way all the “objects” in that organization interact in order to reach it. You can have all the parts of a car, just the right combination of location, adjustments and functioning will make that those parts becomes an vehicle that can transport people. So, if the objetive is so important why some companies don’t define it or communicate it
Continue readingTop five phrases you hear in the entrepreneurship world and their real meaning
Phrases you hear in the entrepreneur world and their real meaning 1. “We are going to be in break even in three months” means “we are not considering 90% of our costs”. 2. “We are unique because our algorithm…” means “we are unique, ok???, no more comments”. 3. “We have no competition” means “we are doing this because we like it, so we never spent 5 seconds to search on Google”. 4. “Our valuation is…” means “Any seven figure number and it’s yours”. 5. “Our product fits client needs because people like” means “we like…” Not having a data-driven culture
Continue readingHow converting you Startup into a Corporation and not die trying
In my previous post I wrote about organization structures. One interesting thing about them is that Startups want to become big corporations, but more than 90% of them fail. Big corporations want to have “Entrepreneurial structures” but they normally fails in its implementation. Let’s try to understand this confusing behaviour pattern. One of the organizations structures that we’ve mentioned in the previous post was the “Entrepreneurial Organization” that has a flat and simple structure were everything is relatively unstructured and informal making this type of organization fast, flexible and lean. Probably is the model that most companies want to copy
Continue readingThe hidden part of the iceberg
Has well as you can’t manage what you don’t measure, you can’t measure what you don’t understand or don’t know. That’s why I was writing in the past posts about systems, then about organisational systems. During last years companies were trying, without really achieving any interesting result, to implement data driven cultures as a way to combat the disorientation generated by the surfeit of information. The failure can be explained by the non-systemic view managers normally has about organisations. They addresses the problem in the same way they converted they companies in Green Companies, by adding an isolated area in
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