Merilee Kern

Numerous indicators make clear that the next five years will usher in extreme transformation for a multitude of industries and sectors as well as the global economy at large. This begs the question: what is driving such significant and rapid change? This big question just might be answered in two words: alternative data.

Companies that are slow to incorporate alternative data into their R&D, marketing, investment, risk analysis and other key processes expose themselves to extreme opportunity loss at best and operational peril at worst.

Amid the large number of health, economic, political, and other macro-crises of late, organizational stress is at an all-time high. For many, stress has become so burdensome that it is more than just a personal issue that can be placated with a few “mental health” days out of the office. Workplaces have become overwhelmed by employees struggling with stress – whether driven by feelings of unease, anxiety, depression, frustration or  any number of unwanted emotions. Given the current level of demands, pressures and uncertainties, employees and businesses can be severely undermined over time.

On their road to recovery from the pandemic, businesses face unique dilemmas. This includes substantial and entirely necessary investments in digital transformation, however tight budgets are making such endeavors difficult if not impossible. Businesses continue to struggle with pivots like adopting new digital platforms, shifting their corporate model to resolve supply chain disruption and enabling a remote workforce.

The inability for businesses to quickly adopt technologies that support digital transformation processes, including identity-based segmentation, virtual desktop interfaces and full-stack cloud, is hindering their ability to adequately address new threats and even to test new security systems and protocols.

In today’s tumultuous business-scape amid increasingly intricate, and often vexing, marketplace conditions, curating and mining data to drive analytics-based decision making is just no longer enough. For competing with maximum, sustained impact and mitigated opportunity loss, it’s rapidly monetizing data that’s now the name of the game—particularly when spurred by artificial intelligence (AI). Indeed, emerging AI methodologies are helping forward-thinking companies achieve and sustain true agility, fuel growth and compete far more aggressively than ever before.

The September 11th attacks. The Great Recession. The COVID-19 pandemic.

All three of these seismic and tragic events have resulted in heartbreak to humanity, including loss of life and our emotional well-being—both individually and collectively. Of course, accompanying these global crises were monetary meltdowns reminiscent of the Great Depression that commenced in 1929 and lingered until the late 1930s.

While some contest, or outright refute, whether or not former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill famously said “success is not final, failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts,” the power of that statement looms large irrespective of origin. Amid the wildly unforeseen fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, this quote is rather prophetic. It speaks to prosperity not being taken for granted and the notion that failure in and of itself isn’t a death knell and.

Communication is ingrained in every facet of life, yet many struggle with fear, insecurity and general ineffectiveness when they find themselves eye to eye with someone to present ideas, address complicated situations, express feelings, negotiate or just “sell them self”—all whether in a personal or professional context.

The internet provides a remarkable platform for large and small businesses alike, and learning how to take advantage of this incredible tool can mean more publicity, more customers, and more sales―all with less work for entrepreneurs.