To understand data warehousing strategically, we should now appreciate that it is the consequence of strategic thinking, which means that it is the product (result) of some combination of strategic ideas. In this case, we must reverse-engineer strategic thinking. We know the result of the strategic thinking process, data warehousing, but what are the strategic ideas from which it emanated? 数据挖掘研究院
Data warehousing is an unusually rich strategic action. A strong case can be made that it is the product of numerous strategic ideas. If we argue, however, that data warehousing is the product of everything, we cloud our analysis. What are the key ideas that it realizes?
In Miyamoto Musashi′s classical book on strategy, The Five Rings, he teaches that all weapons have a distinctive spirit. It is the challenge of a warrior to understand that spirit, master it, and become in harmony with it. In that way, there is perfect integration between the warrior and his weapon. 数据挖掘研究院
When I think about data warehousing′s distinctive spirit, I think about time. More than any other strategic theme, I believe that what data warehousing does is permit one to compete across time. One competes across time as follows:
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Past: One must learn from the past so that the best lessons can be learned and deployed, and mistakes not repeated. |
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Present: One must be able to quickly analyze current events so that one can maneuver in real-time to adapt to them. |
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Future: One must have prescience about the future so that opportunistic investments and actions can be taken now to position for an even better tomorrow. Foreknowledge is the source of extraordinary success. |
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Learning: One must continually learn and adapt based on that learning. All progress includes making mistakes but the same mistakes should not be made twice. |
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Maneuverability: This skill requires finding the best way to go. Forces must be able to maneuver to exploit gaps. |
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Prescience: The leadership must have deep and far-reaching foresight. Leaders must see and know what others do not. The height of prescience is to see the formless and act on it. |
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Foreknowledge: All matters require competitive intelligence. Nothing is more important than understanding the plans of your opponents and the needs of your customers. |
Key Points
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So the strategic ideas from which data warehousing emanates are the time-oriented ones:
These four strategic ideas are not just any set of strategic ideas; they are uniquely important. They are uniquely important because they overlay the time dimension of strategic thinking (Figures 4 and 5, lateral axis). Time is one of the three fundamental dimensions of strategic thought and data warehousing enables one to directly think in that dimension. Data warehousing is, therefore, not just another good result of strategic thinking, it is a very special result because it provides the tools to permit an organization, through the action of building data warehouses, to compete in the primary strategic dimension of time. 数据挖掘实验室
By giving your employees robust access to information about customers, markets, suppliers, financial results et al., you enable them to strategically learn from the past, adapt in the present, and position for the future. To the non-strategist, the mundane thinker, data warehousing is about spending (wasting?) money to let employees play with data. To the strategist, data warehousing is about winning the endless battle against time. 数据挖掘实验室
