However, most countries, as well as, organizations are struggling to harness the benefits of data & data science because they are focusing and investing only on the hard skills of their employees expecting them to decipher all the complex data, whereas the very basic mental ability to comprehend Data is missing in most cases except in very few world-class organizations.

For instance, the findings from a recent survey of 1000 participants by Accenture and Qlik in Singapore reveal that Data skills gap is costing Singapore companies S$5bn in lost productivity. Of the other factors, the two most prominent factors that contribute to these losses are cited as the inability of the employees to comprehend & apply the available data points for informed decision-making and the second one being the lack of data related skills to consume & process this Data.

Science and Data Science works on the same basis of a hypothesis being challenged using multiple methods until it is an established rule, theorem. The ability to fail and then go back to your (data) science laboratory to look for new formulae until it is accepted by all, is another big factor to be considered.

So, if you are a leader or an organization that values the data in its eco-system and is looking to harness the power of that data for better business outcomes & a wider positive impact on the society; it is important how you enable your people to access, process & apply that Data to solve business or real-world problems. This approach of helping & enabling employees and also, more importantly, hiring the employees with the right mindset traits with capability for numerical & statistical analysis, creativity, an eye for detail, ability to collaborate and appetite to take risks; is something that will not only help you reduce detachment & resulting productivity losses for your business, but will also enable you to create a much productive & happier workforce.

However, whatever you do, please do it with genuine respect for data privacy, data ownership & data security best practices; and within basic human & societal expectations of ETHICS and TRUST.

Organizations and countries that do not embrace this approach & ability to embrace failure will fail to innovate & succeed in this space…