Data and Analytics Innovation in the COVID-19 Era: Profiles in the Power of Creative Destruction
“Creative destruction,” a notion popularized by Austrian economist Joseph Schumpeter, proposes that economies constantly mutate because new structures destroy the old. The COVID-19 outbreak accelerated this process by unleashing innovation. Videoconferencing supplanted air travel, telehealth replaced doctor visits, and e-commerce continues to devour storefronts due to well-founded concerns about public health. Viewed another way, digitization “creatively destroys” face to face interactions.
Face to face business, with all its crowded airports, emergency rooms, and Black Friday stampedes, will return in some fashion as scientists get on top of the virus. But we don’t know when, or by how much. In the meantime, creative destruction shapes the future.
We do know that data can help businesses navigate the turbulent times and reshape how they work. Analytics give business leaders the insights they need to reinvent their business models, and they give managers the intelligence they need to operate them. Even while near-term IT spending declines, data and analytics initiatives plant seeds for innovation that will outlive and outgrow the virus.