Data Science and Organizational Transformation: Heresy and Dissidence?

Data science offers new ways of knowing and understanding organizations, processes, and prospects for innovation. This new interdisciplinary epistemology can challenge conventional ways of understanding and managing large organizations and result in disruptive tensions. The experienced manager’s common sense, macroscopic understanding within an established business area certainly has its advantages, but it is not the final word on business management. Data science can supplement, refine, and even discredit conventional understanding. The economics of asymmetric information and insight empowers those who know how to turn data into knowledge and this ability can challenge the integrity of conventional organizations. However, this asymmetry also means that data analysts of all varieties must mature and become data “synthesists” in order for their newly created knowledge to become used and valued. Data silos, turf battles, and remedies will be discussed as well.

Speaker: Eric Fiolkoski, Director of Data Science, DaVita Kidney Care