One personality trait we measure our leaders and executives on is maturity. A developed character has become a necessity in any executive as we depend on them to lead through vision in a diverse and competitive market. We need mature leaders to compete in mature markets. Chiefs of business and nations have a heavy responsible for the well-being and happiness of employees and citizens in exchange for our perspiration and loyalty.
Companies likewise have a responsibility to serve their customers’ well-being as stringently as employees. By protecting customer data and asking for opt-in permissions, companies can use technology to improve the customer experience. In order to do so, they have to keep up with evolving technologies as everything is moving to mobile, cloud computing, and social connectivity. We used to call people in charge of the technology and information at a company the Chief Information Officer, but the position has some maturing to do. Technology has undeniably matured, so must the role of the chief.
For more information on how your company’s Chief Information Officer can get a little more mature, check out our webinars, featuring analysts from Forrester Research.
Our final installment of a day in the life of the perfectly integrated consumer is a glimpse into what the future of customer experience management can be like with integrated companies who care about their fans. We already wrote parts one and two on the 
It’s March Madness, and Marc is excited to begin his seasonal ritual of college basketball fandom. But, he wouldn’t be our perfectly integrated consumer without a number of technology tools that really bring the game to life wherever he’s watching. With a college hoops smartphone app, he built his bracket and can follow real-time updates, and because of the integration capabilities, he can utilize social connectivity with his friends’ streams of predictions and colorful commentary of the game. For Marc, half the fun of March Madness is friendly, colorful trash talking which he can now do live using his phone or tablet in one hand while watching the game. Integrating his mobile experience with the game-viewing experience makes him feel like he is in the stadium enjoying the game and sharing the experience with his closest friends. 
“What exactly does a new video game release have to do with Big Data?” I hear you ask. The answer is everything.
I worked with a client once who was looking to implement an automated process for complaints handling. They explained their processes and began to slowly unveil their “integrated” customer system, explaining that over the years they grew to understand how information needs to move from one system to another for a single customer view.
In the last decade, the world population has increased by more than 700 million to reach seven billion today. And by 2050, there will be two billion more people to feed. According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), food insecurity is a major global concern today. With food consumption exceeding the amount grown for six of the past 11 years, countries have run down reserves by more than 30%.
Now, well into 2013, the concept of Big Data is already becoming an outdated non sequitur. As data increases rapidly, storing huge amounts of data in uncorrelated, separated silos (in database or data warehouse storage) that need to be constantly queried can’t drive any new, intelligent change in a business. In fact, this approach creates even greater challenges. Big Data by itself can’t drive change because it is just a more efficient, more technological way of doing business as usual. Databases that store transaction history are a practice as old as a shop keeper maintaining a ledger of purchases and sales. How is simply scaling that same idea into the millions of entries going to drive any real change in business? That old approach is Big Data 1.0 and it can’t compete with correlated, referential Big Data. Integrating varied information in an individual context, in the moment of customer’s engagement is fundamental to move business forward in any way and has to be the foundation of any conception of Big Data 2.0.
