Can big data and bad administration coexist?

Around the time of the publication of Too Big to Ignore, I spoke at a large conference. The conference sponsor—a very large company that we'll call ABC here—was struggling to find speakers. (I suppose that there weren't too many "big data experts" back then.) What unfolded over the next two months convinced me that, at an organizational level, ABC was incapable of acting with the agility that big data demands.

I'll spare you the excruciating details, but suffice it to say that getting paid was nothing short of a Sisyphean task. Scores of emails, texts and phone calls got me right back to the same place: an innocuous message from an AP clerk asking me to send my invoice because she had not received it. Eventually, I did receive my money (with my primary contact enlisting the help of the CFO), but all of us wasted far too much time on what should be a very straightforward process: cutting a check. To boot, a little bird told me that other speakers experienced the same problem with ABC in the past.

Learning from Google

Contrast that madness with the way in which another large company runs what are largely considered administrative functions (read: HR). Google head of HR is Laszlo Bock on record saying:

“All people decisions at Google are based on data and analytics.”
"The goal is to...bring the same level of rigor to people-decisions that we do to engineering decisions.”

Although I'm sure at some point a vendor's invoice to Google has fallen through the cracks, Bock's quotes illustrate his company's data-based approach to management—irrespective of function. Along these lines, it's hard for me to believe that Google makes it difficult for its partners, employees, and vendors to get paid. I just don't buy it.

Does Google's practice work? I think so, but don't believe me. Glassdoor just named it as the best place to work in the world.

Simon Says

While possible, I honestly doubt that organizations struggling with basic blocking and tackling "do" big data well. (Maybe individual departments can, but the whole kit and kaboodle?)

It's quite simple, really. When previous time and resources are wasted on simple administrative matters, less of each is available to do the sexy stuff that really matters.