HBR surveyed business and tech leaders and found 85% of the organizations have Big Data projects. How they get the right talent to make these projects successful is problematic. Simply put, there are not enough qualified data scientists and tech/data engineers.

Seventy percent (70%) plan to hire data scientists yet find this "challenging" to "very difficult." Some are considering "building" or "buying" the talent.

Key findings:

• 37% of respondents ranked their current analytics capabilities as less than adequate

• 70% of respondents are hiring or plan to hire Data Scientists in the near future – with 60% stating that it is very difficult to find and hire these individuals

• 91% of respondents are hiring new people from outside their organization to fill the talent gap while 69% are training their existing analytics professionals

• 51% stated that it is challenging to find IT professionals with strong data management skills and familiarity with new technologies that apply to Big Data

• 50% reported that it is very difficult to find and hire business leaders and managers who can identify and optimize business opportunities in Big Data.

• Only 2% reported that they have had no challenges finding the right Big Data talent and skilled resources