ERIC HUNTER
THE SHERLOCK
SYNDROME
Strategic Success through Big Data and the
Darwinian Disruption
The Sherlock Syndrome: Strategic Success through Big Data
and the Darwinian Disruption
is published by Ark Group in association with Managing Partner
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ERIC HUNTER
THE SHERLOCK
SYNDROME
Strategic Success through Big Data and the
Darwinian Disruption
iii
Contents
Executive summary ... vii
About the author ...ix
Acknowledgements ...xi
Chapter 1: The Sherlock syndrome and the Darwinian data disruption ... 1
The Sherlock syndrome ...2
The technological Darwinian evolution ...2
The Sherlock syndrome in our Darwinian future ...3
Big data or Big Brother? ...3
The Snowden effect ...4
The search for privacy ...4
Data with no limits ...5
Big data: The Darwinian analysis ...6
Darwinian predictions ...7
Darwinian organizational change ...7
Chapter 2: Exploring the Snowden effect... 9
Conceptual privacy ...9
Portent of paradox ...10
Privacy evolutions ... 11
The Sherlock syndrome and where the lines lie ... 13
How are clients competing? ... 13
Predictive Big Brother ...14
Lenses of opportunity ...14
Interconnected web ...15
Analytical glue ...16
Chapter 3: Big data and Tinder – Speed dating through volume, variety, and velocity ...19
Lots of data – Okay, big data ...19
Contents
iv
AI ...20
Facial recognition ... 21
Search ... 21
Accelerating levels of market disruption ...22
Star Trek and tricorders ...24
Our professional lives ...24
Big data and organizational change ...25
Splicing, dicing, and buzzwords ...26
Big data put into practice ...26
Billing models evolve as the transparency and accuracy of predictive outcomes increase ...27
Big business with analytics ...27
Use case proofs ...28
Avoiding garbage in, garbage out ...29
Big data and predictive analytics ...30
Chapter 4: Social consumerism – Do we take the red pill or the blue pill? .... 33
All billables becoming alternative...35
The Matrix ...35
Taking us forward ...36
Ad revenue ...37
Catching up ...38
Consumer culture change ...38
Social consumer process adaptation for law firms ...39
Technology and process ...39
Fluid business integration ...40
The spherical business model ... 41
Chapter 5: Spherical posture, positioning, and timing ... 43
A visual side to big data analytics ...43
Social circles and teams ...44
Blending of identities ...44
How is information delivered? ...45
Building the spherical organization ...45
Posture, positioning, and timing ...46
The evolution of the firm intranet ...47
Integrating alternative staffing models and driving down costs ...48
Driving the evolution of the web through predictive analytics ...48
Multi-faceted ...49
Predictive predictions ...50
v
The Sherlock Syndrome: Strategic Success through Big Data and the Darwinian Disruption
Alternative steps forward ...51
Ramifications ...51
Strategic pricing through posture, positioning, and timing ...52
Business model innovations and evolving workflow process ...54
Understandings in time ...55
Chapter 6: Harmony and analytics – Building the predictive organization ... 57
Harmony and analytics ...57
Social consumer systems, analytics, and reshaping the organization ...58
Leveraging organizational change ...60
Evolutions in time ... 61
Time and velocity ... 61
Divorcing time through velocity billing ...62
The Darwinian approach to time ...63
Evolving forward in time...64
Future-proofing your business ...64
Evolutions in data capture ...65
Predictive nirvana ...66
Organizational harmony through a disruptive future ...66
Chapter 7: Reinvention, Leonardo Da Vinci, and the Oracle ...69
The oracular path ...69
Creativity ...70
1. Managing ourselves through reinvention ...71
2. Managing perceptions through reinvention ...72
3. Managing our teams through reinvention ...73
4. Managing leadership through reinvention ... 74
5. Managing manipulation through reinvention ...77
6. Managing adversity through reinvention ... 81
7. Managing determination through reinvention ... 81
8. Managing change management initiatives ...82
9. Managing accomplishment through reinvention ...82
10. Managing the future through reinvention ...83
Trust ...83
Leadership through trust ...84
Reinvention where we work ...85
Darwinian analysis ...86
Contents
vi
Chapter 8: Space age integration, predicting the predictive, and
“there is no spoon” ... 89
There is no spoon ...90
Predictive predictions ... 91
Darker side of analytics ...92
AI and the brain ...93
Growth patterns ...94
Forecasting with Einstein and Dr King ...94
Hamlet on shaping the organization ...96
Making an impossible engagement possible...96
Behavioral training ...98
Medicine, the internet, and the Star Trek utopian universe ...98
vii
Executive summary
THIS IS a report focused on building the future, harnessing the present, and on leveraging lessons learned from the past. It is a report on the “Sherlock syndrome” and the “Darwinian data disruption” and – in explaining these concepts – it will outline how to leverage the former to overcome the latter. This report focuses on building organizations (through trust, change management strategy, and leadership), and on making knowledge and technology decisions through the application of big data, predictive analytics, and strategic pricing.
Law firms and other businesses have entered an era of unprecedented possibilities when it comes to data gathering, analysis, and the speed with which this data can be interpreted and used. This allows us to integrate the various aspects of our daily lives with cloud integrated interpretation, visual analysis, and cross-referencing abilities. Much in the way that Sherlock Holmes is able to pull information from the world around him and analyze it at a glance, by leveraging big data and interpretive analytics law firms and businesses today have the ability to analyze, cross reference, and absorb information faster and more completely than ever before. Big data allows us to see trends far more clearly and quickly than ever before. This is what is called the “Sherlock syndrome” in this report, and it is going to play a big part in helping the fittest organizations to survive the technological Darwinian evolution that is currently underway.
The technological landscape is evolving and it is impacting on how people live, on how businesses operate, and on the proliferation of data. Technologies are currently in development which incorporate all of our senses: sight, sound, smell, touch, and taste. These developments – currently in the research stages for integration within multiple industries – represent just a fraction of the latest evolutions in technology that organizations will be using in the near future. Embedded technologies and biotechnology are leading people and organizations toward the concept of an evolving and infinite cloud of information, the interpretation of information, and the ability for “total recall”. Charles Darwin’s concept of the survival and evolution of nature’s most adaptable organisms is one of the ruling factors applied to the technological age that we are currently living in. There is a surplus of technology competing, thriving, failing, and evolving. The most malleable and adaptable technology,
Executive summary
viii
in-tune with the changing behavioral patterns of the consumer, not only survives but evolves and thrives in the marketplace. This is what is meant by the Darwinian technological evolution, and it is explored in depth in this report.
This report explores big data, how we define it, and what it really means in practice. It considers the various impacts of big data analytics on strategic pricing, processes, and change management for consumers, law firms, clients, and organizations across the globe, and how it affects our perceptions of privacy. The report also dissects social consumerism, its impact, and effective business integration within the legal industry and others. It provides a clear explanation of how big data and predictive analytics are forcing businesses to evolve in tandem with social consumerism, and provides advice on how law firms must evolve in tandem with their clients. Throughout the report, Sherlock Holmes’ visual data analysis process is used as both a metaphor and as a change strategy made possible through big data and predictive and interpretive analytics. The report also explains the need to understand the importance of re-invention and managing perception as it directly applies toward an evolving, adaptive corporate strategy.
This report discusses evolving business models and the resulting impacts on organizational change and strategic pricing. Considering business process evolution, the report explores how this relates to an organization’s posture, positioning, and timing, while weaving in a predictive and big data analytics approach to redefining “the organization”. Drawing on musical harmony as a metaphor, the report also discusses how both organizations and technology are evolving in tune with the market disruption of our time. Bringing in Leonardo da Vinci’s ideas about (re)invention, adaption, and perception, we apply these concepts to corporate strategy. The report also explores leadership evolution and strategic leadership techniques in applying the change management necessary to make the Sherlock syndrome a success. Finally, this report looks ahead at what the technological Darwinian future holds for us.
What will day-to-day perceptions, learning, work lives, professional contacts, and social lives be like when the reality of the Sherlock syndrome is available to us through technology via big data, biotechnology, and cross referencing analytics through the cloud? The reality of Sherlock’s perceptions can already be seen and applied directly to forensics investigations, insurance claims investigations, and the search and playback features in our day-to-day consumer and business developments and strategy. They are a model for where big data utilization through visual analytics can take us. This report will help readers to learn more about these business-changing developments, and it is a guide an applicable, tangible, and cost effective path forward in navigating our Darwinian times to ensure business survival and future success.
ix
About the author
Eric Hunter is the director of knowledge, technology & innovation strategies at Bradford & Barthel, LLP, executive director of Spherical Models, LLC, and a legal industry futurist. Eric leads the spherical models team focusing on spherical business innovations, models, and process workflow leveraging big data, strategic pricing, predictive analytics, futurism, social, and collaborative solutions. Eric is constantly looking to leverage innovation solutions to enhance client service interaction while driving business optimization solutions internally. Eric speaks
and writes on futurism, competitive strategy, evolving business models, process evolutions, big data, strategic pricing, predictive analytics, and collaborative cloud solutions globally and is the recipient of ILTA’s 2010 ‘Knowledge Management Champion’ Distinguished Peer and ILTA’s 2010 ‘Innovative Member’ awards. Eric is on the editorial board for Managing Partner. Follow Eric on Twitter @thelihunter.
xi
Acknowledgements
For Tom, without your support these chapters would have never been realized. For Kristin, without your patience, these chapters would never have been written. For Helen and Laura, without your edits, these chapters would never have printed.
