There was a time, I keep hearing people propose doing "Data Science" for any kind of business challenges as though its a magic pill that once you pop it in or throw at a problem, it will solve miraculously.

Summary...IT ISN'T! There are many ways Data Science can fail in an organization. Things like data collection, data quality, not structuring the modeling question correctly, not using the model correctly, the model does not meet the required performance, etc.

"Don't do Data Science then?", you may ask. NO WAY! You HAVE TO do Data Science. There are many benefits for your business if you do Data Science correctly. Data Science forms one of the tools in your toolkit in managing your business. Think about it, given Industry 4.0 and digitization, all businesses will be collecting data as a by-product. Which businesses will stand tall? Those that take advantage of the data collected because when done correctly, data can tell a lot of things about the organization. It is like the data contains so many secrets and to be rewarded with these valuable secrets, you have to know where to dig. (What I loved about data!) It is like solving a big jigsaw puzzle, where you have to figure each piece and how they can be put together to form a clear picture of your business performance. :)

Having said that, it is still not a magic pill. Let me explain with an analogy. Imagine you are locked in a dark room and need to find a paperclip to unlock the door. Chances of you finding a paperclip will be extremely low since the room is dark. Now if I provide you with a torchlight, things will have changed. The torchlight is not a guarantee that you will find the paperclip but you know your chance of finding has increased given the torchlight.

The torchlight is like Data Science. Data Science cannot guarantee you will be able to solve your business problem or make a good decision but at least it will help. Let us continue with that example. As you climb up the learning curve, gaining more knowledge and a better understanding of machine learning models and the tools, it is similar to making your torchlight more powerful, shining a bigger area at a time. It increases your chance of finding the paperclip or in our context, you have a better chance of solving your business problem or maker better business decisions.

Conclusion

Data Science is NEVER a magic pill. It is not magical at all. Data Science cannot guarantee success but as long as you keep growing your usage experience, you gain more chances of succeeding with it. So start using it in your organization now! :)

Want to know how to start? Here are a few blog posts.

All the best to your business in using Data Science!! :)

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