Only the data-driven will thrive in the new, transforming, post-globalization economy and marketplace
When the marketplace grows stormy, there’s only one way to keep the bow of your enterprise fixed against the waves: command of precise, data-driven knowledge across every dimension of your ship, your crew, and the tempest itself.
I’ve weathered three such storms in the past. The first was the dot-com bubble burst of 2000, which ultimately wiped out almost 5,000 internet-related companies, nearly including my own, Coremetrics, one of the pioneers in Web/data analytics.
The second was during my time at the helm of the product review platform Bazaarvoice as the Great Recession hit in December of 2007. That economic storm that followed for the next 18 months famously felled Lehman Brothers and led to over 60,000 corporate bankruptcies in the U.S., with over 200,000 in Europe.
In both cases, survival was grounded in data. Coremetrics, which I co-founded in 1999, was one of the first SaaS pioneers (before that term SaaS or ASP even existed). It thrived because we provided our customers, notably Walmart, with precise analytics about their online business, where everything was “masked” by a Web browser and you couldn’t “see” customer behavior. Bazaarvoice, founded in 2005 as the “voice of the marketplace”, empowered customers to understand why some products flew off the shelves while others stagnated. Even suppliers, like Samsung, were able to redesign products based on data from returns and customer feedback.
In my third experience, at data.world, we learned firsthand how data-driven agility was key to navigate the pandemic. Airbnb’s CEO Brian Chesky, in particular, leveraged data to transform the company almost overnight from a vacation rental platform to a remote-work haven. In less than a year, Airbnb went from an 80% drop in bookings to one of the largest IPOs in history. For all of us, this ability to pivot — anchored in real-time data — was the key to surviving that crisis.
These black swan events — dot-com crashes, recessions, or pandemics — will always disrupt commerce. But what lies on the horizon today is even more formidable: the transformation of economics and commerce itself.
Today our recovering economy is strong and I’m optimistic about the near term. More broadly, however, we are now in a post-globalization era. The geopolitical landscape is more fraught than it has been in at least a century. After decades of low interest rates and abundant capital, we now face capital rationalization — even with the Fed’s recent rate cuts. The bridging of distance with globe-straddling supply chains in recent decades is being reversed in light of remote work and a push for on- or near-shoring. Meanwhile, AI is busting every business paradigm to reshape workforces, operations, and entire industries.
Most profoundly, after decades of outsourcing manufacturing, we are witnessing what economics writer Noah Smith has dubbed the “New Industrialism”. This new era blends the innovations of the digital age — AI in particular — with the benefits of traditional manufacturing. While our political leaders may struggle to articulate this shift, there is an emerging consensus: we are headed toward a world where more efficient, resilient, and sustainable industrial systems are imperative.
This is not just a disruption; it’s a profound transformation. And I welcome it. I believe it will lead to unimaginable abundance, healthier workplaces, a more just economy, and a vastly improved environment. We have the opportunity to build resilience in the face of climate change, revolutionize health care, reinvent capitalism to make it more equitable, and allow investors, employers, and workers to thrive together.
However, not every business will make it across this chasm. Those that succeed will be the ones that master their data — understanding the facts of their business and forming the digital brain and nervous system of their companies, as I’ve written about before. Data science is often shrouded in jargon, but it boils down to one thing: the facts. The facts about your customers, your locations, your employees, your supply chains, and your innovations.
In turbulent times, successful leaders focus on these facts. They don’t fly blind. They don’t use outdated paper maps in the age of GPS. Leaders who thrive will:
- Deeply understand the customer: In challenging markets, it’s critical to grasp data-driven insights into how customers interact with your products and services. Knowing what truly matters to them can tighten margins and ensure survival.
- Grasp the ground truth: Companies that focus on actionable metrics — like conversion rates or customer satisfaction — are better equipped to make decisions than those relying on superficial metrics like page views.
- Convert pain into focus: Economic hardship forces businesses to eliminate inefficiencies and concentrate on what truly matters. Pain becomes the impetus for resilience and strategic sharpness.
- Democratize data: When data is accessible across all levels of an organization, teams can collaborate more effectively, make better-informed decisions, and contribute to the company’s resilience and sustainability.
- Understand the value of metrics: The businesses that thrive in hard times are those that can quickly adjust their focus to the right metrics — about customers, employees, and operations. This data becomes essential for everything from cost-cutting to identifying new revenue opportunities.
In this era of transformation, successful leaders will not only navigate through storms — they’ll harness the power of data to ensure their ships are steered toward a more resilient and prosperous future. I’ve seen it from our customers many times in my career, from Coremetrics to Bazaarvoice and now data.world. Businesses that are truly data-driven are amazing to watch in action.
