When was the last time you thought about the steps your company is taking to avert a potential crisis or quickly respond to one of those crises? And when was the last time you took an in-depth look at your companys vulnerabilities, as opposed to simply acknowledging them and then moving on?
These may not be the most exciting questions to ask, nor the most popular ones. Nonetheless, they are three questions that executives need to constantly be asking if they want to succeed in todays competitive marketplace. Having a deep understanding of your companys weaknesses and vulnerabilities is one of the most important things that can be done. Every company has a weak spot or two (or three), and at some point in the future theyre going to be forced to deal with it. How the company has prepared for that certainly will go a long way in determining how successfully they navigate it. Too many times companies are poorly prepared and pay a steep price for it many even go out of business.
Fortunately, in 2014, there is an incredible array of tools that companies can use to prepare for the rainy days to come. One of the most powerful, of course, is Big Data analytics. The power of Big Data analytics gives companies the capabilities necessary to pinpoint, with great accuracy, areas of internal and external concern. It takes much of the guesswork out of crisis management, and it does so in real time.
So, what are some steps companies can take to avoid and deal with crises using Big Data? Here are just a few.
1. Identify Weaknesses
It is paramount to a companys success that they identify any and all areas that could be potential vulnerabilities. A simple and effective way to do this is to look at the areas that would cause great harm to the company, its shareholders, and the customers if there were a security breach and/or a loss of information. Additionally, companies can implement Big Data at this stage to identify other areas of weakness that to the human eye would go unnoticed. The key to the whole process is being focused and thorough. It does the company no good if they try to paper over the cracks or pretend the weaknesses dont exist. It may seem ok for the short term, but over time its going to come back to haunt them, often at a large cost. Big Data also gives companies more items they can monitor in order to identify weaknesses, items like interactions, signals, movements of goods, and activities. Through these numerous different sources, theyll be in a much better position to make any needed changes.
Using Big Data analytics, companies can easily identify and analyze factors that could potentially cause distress to the company. Whether its economic levels, war zones, natural disaster zones, high theft areas, or another criterion, companies can zone in on areas of concern. With enough advanced analytics, businesses will be able to weed out bad data, which can reduce the uncertainty regarding identifying weaknesses. Companies can also take this risk assessment one step further by looking closer at third party contractors and providers. Target recently suffered a massive security breach thanks to attacker infiltrating a third party. This example shows third party vendors may open up larger companies to unnecessary risks, so the larger company needs to use Big Data to identify the weakness quickly. Again, the best part is that all this can be done very quickly and with great accuracy with Big Data.
2. Look at past results and potential future results
Once a company has identified areas of concern, it can then go back to its data and look at how those areas have affected the company in the past, and what is expected to occur in the future. With those results, its easier for a company to identify negative outcomes that would occur if a disaster of some sort were to occur.
In this step, as with the first, Big Data is extremely vital. With it, companies can discover new ways to overcome problems theyve faced in the past and those theyll likely face again in the future. Additionally, the analytics allow companies to run sequences that can test suggested solutions, allowing companies to test out their theories without having to go through the actual problem. Of particular value is the use of social data, which can be utilized by businesses to predict future crises based off of the information from past events.
3. Use Big Data to monitor current crises
Every company hopes to never be struck by a crisis, but unfortunately most are. Here too, a Big Data platform is a great tool. With its analytical capabilities, it can be used to monitor the web, social media, consumer sentiment, company sentiment, and a variety of other measurements that may be key to a crisis management plan. Again, it can do all of that in real-time allowing your company to make quick, effective decisions to get back on track. Big Data can also be extremely effective in helping multiple branches and divisions work together when dealing with a major crisis.
Managing risk is difficult. Its not fun to take an in-depth look at a companys weaknesses and vulnerabilities, but its essential to success. With Big Data, companies can identify those areas quickly and with great accuracy to create more effective plans for averting and responding to disasters.
