Bill Schmarzo is the CTO of EMC's Big Data Consulting Practice and a frequent industry speaker, a blogger, a professor at the University of San Francisco School of Management as well as an author. Schmarzo wrote "Big Data MBA: Driving Business Strategies with Data Science" and "Big Data: Understanding How Data Powers Big Business".

Show notes at http://hellotechpros.com/bill-schmarzo-people/

Key Takeaways * The companies who are successful with Big Data addressed the cultural or people issues. + How do we get people engaged in the process so that we're delivering the analytics in a way that is actionable to our stakeholders? * Many companies tend to start with implementing Hadoop and then waiting for magic to happen. It doesn't happen. * Data science is really identifying the variables and metrics that MIGHT be a better predictor of performance. + "Might" is a license to be wrong and in many companies the idea of wrong is bad. * In the BI space, the IT departments over promised and under deliveredwhich has lead business leaders to be skeptical of Big Data initiatives. * You have to have a tight alignment between the business and IT to ensure that we are working on the right problems. * Pick a topic / problem that business users find is important, focus on strategic business initiatives. + Create a link between business and data scientists. * Create a culture of creativity across the whole organization. + Creativity is a contagious event. + All ideas are worthy of consideration. + We want people to be unafraid to be creative and sharing their ideas even if they may not work. + The best ideas come from front line. + Most large organizations struggle with protecting their own fiefdoms which leads to data silos. * Big Data is not about big, its about small. + Learn as much as possible about individual person, event and situation instead of looking at the average of the data. + Aggregated data is the devil. You need to work with raw to serve the individual. * Big Data initiatives tend to fail because the teams are focused on too many opportunities instead of being focused and priortizing the most important business problems. + Focus on one decision which has high value and high feasibility. * Big Data is a team sport. + We need everyone involved, including the business, the IT and the data scientists. + Success breeds success. Quick wins will catch the attention of other people and build a grassroots movement.