Out of the Blue and into the Black: The Pursuit of Innovation and a visit to the DSM Biotechnology Center

Data Shift

Data is itself flattening into just two layers. There’s used to be the raw data, the data you could report to the team, the summary provided to the manager, the micro-summery to the director, the meta-summary for the executive, the meta-meta summary that went to the board and the dollarization reports, the consequence of innovation, that went to management, board and the financial community.

Now, there’s the raw data that you keep away from internet-connected servers, and the data served up to the Cloud — with algorithms to mash that into projections, financials, engineering data, and so forth. We’re not there — but that’s where we’re heading. Less human mashing, less layering and summarizing that costs speed and introduces Edward Smith and the Titanic too often into the equation.

But that big wall protecting data from outside snoopers, that gets less publicity than the proposed Trump Wall between the US and Mexico, but its far more important. No one is going to get comfortable any time soon with Julian Assange dumping raw biotechnology lab data into WikiLeaks. Encryption is getting smarter, but piracy is getting smarter faster. Data point to consider, the biggest single organizational group in attendance at the 2018 Advanced Bioeconomy Leadership Conference is the US Federal Bureau of Investigation, which is mounting a major effort against commercial information piracy.

What will shift over time is the nature of what gets held inside and what is shared. The very secrecy with which large companies have traditionally bathed themselves is coming under challenge — the alternative to sharing through the Cloud is hiring, managing, directing, presiding — or limiting the geography and diversity of partners to local firms. So, they’re opening up, slowly, and despite the sweaty palms.