- On December 16, 2016
- By Michael
- Tags Asset Class, Personal Data
Talking Today for Tomorrow
James Felton Keith, founder of the Keith Institute, has turned his keen interest in culture into a winning vision. His early predictive analytics application for stock and market analysis caught the eye of IBM and won him incubation with the company. His resulting product could also be used in other business sectors, an not just limited to finance. But explaining the technology and where it was headed was an interesting hurdle.
Language, one of the three methodologies we use to communicate from an IT point of view (software, hardware and methodology or systems process) was a barrier to progress. That’s where an entrepreneur’s vision comes in – they use the knowledge of tomorrow in a business structure of today to communicate to a culture of yesterday. In other words, he realized you must use known language and concepts to explain something unknown. This is important to any entrepreneur creating an elevator pitch; the need to communicate a good idea, product or service clearly and very fast. If you can’t communicate it very fast to one person, you can’t tell anyone else quickly either.
James also discussed his definition of Personal Data as an asset class. It is the transactional meta data points that are inputs to products, services and policy, and using those data points to create is key to creating success. It is those points of data where people have direct value. Using Personal Data this way is effectively using people as part of the supply chain, the value chain just like using other points of data. His definition keeps and acknowledges the intrinsic value of people in the equation, and could very well be the currency of the future.
The discussion of theory, of vision and the value of people as they seek to have an equity stake in the process while being productive, is a discussion whose time has come. All entrepreneurs and business owners will want to understand where the future is headed and how they can begin to incorporate the changes into their business now. You won’t want to miss this week’s The Trep Talk!
