Data Archives

Signal vs. Noise: A Mid-Year Framework for Navigating Transformation in the Age of Overload

Signal vs. Noise: A Mid-Year Framework for Navigating Transformation in the Age of Overload A Summer Solstice Pause for Strategic Clarity Issue 218, June 26, 2025 With a continuous barrage of public opinion about the pros and cons of new strategies, tactics, and tools, we’re taking a Summer Solstice-inspired, mid-year pause to curate three important signals organizations should consider in being ready and prepared for transformation. Because like it or not, transformation is not nice, it’s messy and it’s stressful…

Kevin Novak

June 25, 2025

Ideas and Innovations Newsletter

What We Know About You: Welcome to the Surveillance State

What We Know About You: Welcome to the Surveillance State Issue 152, March 21, 2024 We recently read a report in The Wall Street Journal that got our attention. Commercial data brokers are selling their third-party data to the government. If you’re an optimist, you would think this could be a good thing. Our intelligence agencies and the defense department may be able to identify patterns that could predict and prevent an unfortunate event – terrorism, for example. But honestly,…

Kevin Novak

March 20, 2024

Ideas and Innovations Newsletter

Are You Sure You Matter?

Are You Sure You Matter? Issue 133, November 2, 2023 Holding onto next-gen workers and customers (born between 1997 and 2012) requires more than a trick up your sleeve. They are actively changing up the rules of engagement in, and for, organizations of all sizes — whether they are employees or customers. Call them naïve or a brutal force of nature with critical mass, they are redefining the workplace culture and the brand/customer value proposition. Here’s the key thought: You…

Kevin Novak

November 2, 2023

Ideas and Innovations Newsletter

The Motivation of Manipulating Data and Information to a Desired Outcome

The Motivation of Manipulating Data and Information to a Desired Outcome Issue 129, October 5, 2023 Some recent headlines have reported disturbing news about respected and respectable scholars falsifying or just ignoring data conclusions in scholarly papers. This is another example of the skepticism many of us have with the shifts in misinformation flooding our inboxes and newsfeeds, compelling each of us to exercise our critical thinking skills. And the examples we’re referring to aren’t even results of AI. It…

Kevin Novak

October 5, 2023

Ideas and Innovations Newsletter

The Consequences of Unbounded Optimism – Ideas and Innovations from 2040

The Consequences of Unbounded Optimism Issue 94, February 9, 2023 All societies live by stated or perceived mantras. In the United States we reach for the stars, believe the sky is the limit, and if we build it, they will come. These sentiments permeate our culture, inspire our children, and guide our business leaders. We love entrepreneurialism; we reward it, admire it, and aspire to it. The entrepreneurial spirit and manifest destiny represent the American can-do ingenuity and genius of…

Kevin Novak

February 9, 2023

Ideas and Innovations Newsletter

Ideas + Innovations from 2040: Measuring What Matters

Measuring What Matters With the drama and disruption of the pandemic, you might think it’s time to re-evaluate your Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). Just look at the megatrends. Externally, customers have been affected by financial and supply chain disruption, along with revelations of new digital ways of managing day-to-day life. Many of the adaptations and changed behaviors are likely here to stay. Internally, organizations have pivoted but many remain dedicated to returning to a normal that no longer exists or…

Kevin Novak

September 2, 2021

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Data and Analytics Strategy

Data Strategy: Your Strategic Weapon

Developing and implementing a data strategy can lead to data stores representing a 360-degree view of members, customers and subscribers across the organization. The data collected, managed and mined as specified in a data strategy and plan can enable real time descriptive, predictive and prescriptive intelligence using rules, models and algorithms that create an opportunity to use data driven management decision-making. Using your gut feeling to make decisions based on a few customer discussions is sometimes great but it can be…

Kevin Novak

September 16, 2015