Fail Fast, Learn Faster Lessons in Data-Driven Leadership in an Age of Disruption, Big Data, and AI

PRAISE FOR FAIL FAST, LEARN FASTER

“Big Data is indeed crossing the chasm that separates early adopters from the mainstream of enterprise customers. As Randy Bean makes abundantly clear in Fail Fast, Learn Faster, this crossing is by no means smooth. Through a wonderful hoard of business anecdotes, he shows over and over again that the challenge of becoming a data-driven business has little to do with the Big Data itself, and is only marginally about mastering the technology needed to harness it. Rather, it is primarily about leadership teams finding forcing functions that can drive massive change in the roles, processes, and systems that make up their enterprise. For some the forcing function will be regulatory demands, for others a global market demanding draconian cost reductions, for others an emerging competitive threat from digital disrupters, and for still others, a mission to solve customer problems that cannot be addressed by conventional means. As a reader of Randy’s book, it is your job to determine the forcing function that will drive change through your organization and to draw upon his wealth of examples to navigate your way forward.”
GEOFFREY MOORE
Author of Crossing the Chasm and Zone to Win

“Inspiring, terrifying, but always usefully instructive, Randy Bean even-handedly lays out the indisputable case for why every organization needs a ‘Big Data strategy,’ and what it takes to build and act on it. Filled with great firsthand examples, ‘profiles in courage,’ and learning about what has succeeded and failed, the book is true to its title as it takes you through the tough lessons, worthy risks, and core imperatives of life competing in the Big Data future. This is a book that should be required reading across C-suites and boards, because if they don’t read it, they will be overrun by those who did.”
DAVE EDELMAN
Former Chief Marketing Officer, Aetna; Former Lead, McKinsey’s Digital Marketing Practice

“In a whirlwind tour of real-world business cases, Randy Bean gives us an ironclad set of lessons: To benefit from the increasing deluge of data now available, businesses must first have a rational strategy for what they are trying to do, along with a practical plan for architecting the data management function, as well as a set of standards and practices for how they deal with the data. But most important, they must also be prepared to steer an often-resistant enterprise in what can be an entirely new direction, and this is where the fail fast/learn faster discipline is vital. If you want to learn faster yourself, then start with this book.”
DON PEPPERS AND MARTHA ROGERS, PHD,
Authors of The One to One Future: Building Relationships One Customer at a Time

“Randy Bean has written the quintessential book for organizations striving to become data-driven. While many books often cover the technology aspects of Big Data and AI, Bean uniquely strikes at the heart of why so few have been able to capitalize on their investments in data: culture and people. Bean covers the complex but critical topic of data and AI ethics. Fail Fast, Learn Faster is both inspiring and cautionary, weaving case studies, data, and best practices, making it a must-read for CEOs, CDOs, and all data and analytics leaders.”
CINDI HOWSON
Chief Data Strategy Officer, ThoughtSpot and Host of The Data Chief podcast

Explore why — now more than ever — the world is in a race to become data-driven, and how you can learn from examples of data-driven leadership in an Age of Disruption, Big Data, and AI

In Fail Fast, Learn Faster: Lessons in Data-Driven Leadership in an Age of Disruption, Big Data, and AI, Fortune 1000 strategic advisor, noted author, and distinguished thought leader Randy Bean tells the story of the rise of Big Data and its business impact – its disruptive power, the cultural challenges to becoming data-driven, the importance of data ethics, and the future of data-driven AI.

The book looks at the impact of Big Data during a period of explosive information growth, technology advancement, emergence of the Internet and social media, and challenges to accepted notions of data, science, and facts, and asks what it means to become "data-driven."

Fail Fast, Learn Faster includes discussions of:

• The emergence of Big Data and why organizations must become data-driven to survive
• Why becoming data-driven forces companies to "think different" about their business
• The state of data in the corporate world today, and the principal challenges
• Why companies must develop a true "data culture" if they expect to change
• Examples of companies that are demonstrating data-driven leadership and what we can learn from them
• Why companies must learn to "fail fast and learn faster" to compete in the years ahead
• How the Chief Data Officer has been established as a new corporate profession

Written for CEOs and Corporate Board Directors, data professional and practitioners at all organizational levels, university executive programs and students entering the data profession, and general readers seeking to understand the Information Age and why data, science, and facts matter in the world in which we live, Fail Fast, Learn Faster p;is essential reading that delivers an urgent message for the business leaders of today and of the future.