Review of ‪Philip Evans: How Data Will Transform Business‬

Data is a set of values of qualitative or quantitative variables; restated, pieces of data are individual pieces of information. Data is measured, collected and reported, and analyzed, whereupon it can be visualized using graphs or images. Data as a general concept refers to the fact that some existing information or knowledge is represented or coded in some form suitable for better usage or processing. (Wikipedia) Philip Evans in his TED talk discusses the fundamental evolution of the sharing information. He states that transaction costs, processing information and communication, were known as the “glue” that held the value chains together. As of mid-90s communications costs have actually been falling even faster than transaction costs, which is why communication, the Internet, has drastically exploded. Evans believes it then becomes possible for a competitor in one business to use their position in one step of the value chain in order to penetrate the competitor in another. He provides the example of the encyclopedia, which due to the growth of the internet was overtaken by the online source Wikipedia. Wikipedia lead to the second age of the internet, from the internet being a noun to now a verb, a place that is based off of user generated content. Evans believes that in the third decade of the internet will be distinguished from the first two by data. Not only has the world’s stock of data heavily increased but about half the digital data has an I.P address associated with it. Which means it becomes possible to put together half of the world's knowledge in order to see patterns. When all this data is comprised together, the patterns that were not visible before are immensely powerful in the progress of business, medicine, and continual growth of our civilization. Evans states these kinds of transformation will render the traditional business strategy obsolete. They will require us to think fundamentally differently about the structure of business and strategy....