How to Engrain a Big Data Mindset into Our Managers' DNA

Abstract

The industry experts' claim that big data will be the next frontier for innovation, competition, and productivity, has turned from an unfounded omen to an obvious reality. In the looming data-driven business era, data will pervade organizations and will thus affect their nature and functioning. The central role played by data is about to impact the main mechanism that fuels the life of organizations, decision making, which will then gradually redefine the job and function of managers. In May 2014, a French top-ten business school launched a 2-week big data initiative aiming at immersing future managers into a big data simulation and also sensitizing them to the overall cultural shift that big data is about to engender within organizations. Using semi-real data about a French newspaper, 100 graduating students were engaged into a big data serious game which main objective was to use data visualization techniques on a large dataset hosted on a Hadoop cluster in order to derive business recommendations to higher management. By conducting observations, taking field notes, and interviewing participants, important insights could be derived for educational institutions that are contemplating the importance of including big data into their curricula but also for organizations that strive to engrain a big data mindset within their managers.