The Business of Data: Interview with MIT's Barbara Wixom

I recently went one-on-one with Barbara Wixom, co-author of Data is Everybody’s Business. Barbara is a Principal Research Scientist at the MIT Sloan Center for Information Systems Research (MIT CISR), founder of the MIT CISR Data Research Advisory Board, and faculty director for the MIT Sloan online short course Data Monetization Strategy.

Adam: Thanks again for taking the time to share your advice. First things first, though, I am sure readers would love to learn more about you. How did you get here? What experiences, failures, setbacks, or challenges have been most instrumental to your growth?

Barb: When I started my doctoral program with aspirations to teach, I was blessed to work under an incredible mentor Dr. Hugh Watson who was a pioneer researcher in executive information systems in the 80’s. At the time, data warehousing was just getting started, and Hugh encouraged me to study how organizations create value from data warehouses as my doctoral work. Fast forward, I study that same topic today, but in contemporary contexts. The fun part is that although terms and tools and techniques have changed, the underlying dynamics remain the same. Think: data to insight to action to value creation to value realization. Timeless. After 29 years studying data, my job now is to remind people how much we know. Today, I try to help people cut through the noise – and make smart, thoughtful choices about how to invest, manage, and use data in acceptable and fruitful ways.

Adam: What do you hope readers take away from your new book?

Barb: The book offers a coherent vision of what it means to monetize data. My co-authors Cynthia and Leslie helped me create a book that could be read by a front-line worker through to an executive or board member. We called the book “Data is Everybody’s Business” because ideally people will read the book alongside their colleagues and have productive, action-oriented conversations about how to turn data into money in ways that are important and distinctive for their organization. We hope readers will see themselves in the case studies and be inspired to participate in data monetization initiatives as soon as possible.

Adam: What are the biggest misconceptions about data monetization? How can and should organizations monetize data?

Barb: Let’s start with the subject itself. No one likes the fact that personal data is sometimes collected and sold without their consent. And unfortunately, some people lump the huge opportunity to create and realize value from data assets with this sketchy, dishonorable behavior. We address this misunderstanding in the first chapter of our book. We frame data monetization as a principled business practice, appropriate and essential for all organizations, big, small, public, private, government, non-profit, etc. Data monetization is about being responsible with your organization's data, not about being irresponsible with other people's data.

Another misconception is that data projects require high-quality data, data science chops, and the latest software. Organizations should not wait for some imaginary future when data is clean and trusted before they start extracting value from their data. In our book, we explain how data is converted to data assets through its use in monetization initiatives. It makes no sense to wait; the practice of using data will strengthen the organization’s capabilities around it. Most organizations are already monetizing their data, but few are accumulating valuable capabilities and data assets as they go. We hope the book’s frameworks will provide clarity on the need to focus on this. 

There are three approaches to monetize data – improving, wrapping, and selling. Organizations can engage in one, two, or all three approaches. How should organizations monetize data? There is no one best way. It depends on the organization's capabilities, the state of their data assets, how the organization is structured, and its strategic priorities. In the book, we liken these resources to ingredients that a chef can use to create myriad delicious meals. In short, I don’t believe in being prescriptive. Our data monetization frameworks can solve different problems or achieve different objectives. People should lead with their distinct organizational needs and then consider how data monetization can help. 

Adam: More broadly, how can leaders best understand and utilize data?

Barb: It’s vital for leaders to distinguish between “data” and “data assets.”  Data is everywhere—stuck in closed platforms, replicated in multiple locations, incomplete, inaccurate, and poorly defined. Data assets, on the other hand, are decontextualized and prepared to be accessed and reused for innumerable purposes. The book describes how organizations develop data assets so they can be acceptably exploited repeatedly. 

Leaders who want to better utilize their data should champion small initiatives at the team level. People learn new skills and adopt new practices as they work on data monetization initiatives. If one sales team learns sophisticated AI techniques to identify their best prospects, for example, they can then share those skills with other colleagues to make other predictions. And a data set cleaned and curated by one team might be usable by many others. In this way, data assets and data monetization capabilities are developed in the context of initiatives. Data-savvy leaders make sure great local data capabilities are marshaled into enterprise capabilities that are available to be used by everybody in the organization and not left in silos. 

Adam: What do you believe are the defining qualities of an effective leader? How can leaders and aspiring leaders take their leadership skills to the next level?

Barb: Effective leaders make sure their people know how daily work tasks contribute to the accomplishment of important goals. Then, knowing their people are headed in the right direction, effective leaders allow them to execute to the best of their ability. For example, at CarMax, employees throughout the company can link what they do every day to one of CarMax’s missions: either they are trying to sell more cars, or they are trying to buy more cars. 

We work with leaders at large global companies and research what underpins their success.  Again and again, we encounter excellent communicators and relationship builders. Leaders who stand out in our research define what is important, explain it simply and memorably, and empower their people to act.

Adam: What are your three best tips applicable to entrepreneurs, executives, and civic leaders?

Barb: One: Your organization needs more than just data scientists. Our research uncovered four other capabilities that organizations use to develop data assets and make data monetization fast and successful: data management, data platform, customer understanding, and acceptable data use.  Each of these is built by adopting specific practices. 

Two: Each data monetization initiative needs a process and/or product owner to assume organizational risks and to make sure the initiative achieves actual financial value.

Three: Don't be satisfied with non-monetary outcomes, like making people more efficient, delighting customers or citizens, making products more competitive. Make sure that those outcomes reach your bottom line in the form of higher revenues or lower costs, if you're an entrepreneur or executive, or more donations or smaller budgets, if you're a civic leader.

Adam: What are your best tips for data scientists?

Barb: One: Data monetization relies on data assets. Measure your success in terms of how well you are producing data assets that others can endlessly exploit.

Two: For every use case, don't stop with efficiency or customer satisfaction -- figure out whether and how that efficiency or customer satisfaction will get turned into reduced costs or increased revenues (or donations or budget funding or grants or other financial inflows). If the use case won't change the bottom line, skip it.

Three: Make sure your practices create lasting data monetization capabilities and data assets. Don't just clean data once; create a process/routine that will crank out clean data every time. Don't just figure out what one customer wants; create a way of routinely finding out what customers want and sharing what you learn. Don't just decide if some action is ethical; create a framework for easily deciding if any action is ethical. 

Adam: What is the single best piece of advice you have ever received?

Barb: Going back to my doctoral advisor Dr. Hugh Watson… Hugh told me at the outset of my academic career that research is only important if it changes what people do. He encouraged me – and all his doctoral students – to make sure that our academic research projects generated insights that made it into the hands of practitioners asap. That advice has motivated me to work closely with practice for three decades. 

Notably, for the past decade, I’ve relied heavily on Sloan’s MIT CISR Data Research Advisory Board, which includes one hundred brilliant data leaders from around the world who help me identify, prioritize, design, and disseminate research insights. The data board encouraged us to develop the book. They explained the need for a book about data for “everybody” so that people across an organization could share common terms and frameworks and have productive data conversations.

Adam: Is there anything else you would like to share?

Barb: Data monetization requires the engagement of everybody in an organization (hence the title of our book), not just leaders and data scientists. People must question the status quo, share ideas, adopt novel practices, change habits, and contribute to organizational goals. They must believe that data is valuable, is essential, and plays a role in the organization’s success.


Adam Mendler is an entrepreneur, writer, speaker, educator, and nationally-recognized authority on leadership. Adam is the creator and host of the business and leadership podcast Thirty Minute Mentors, where he goes one on one with America's most successful people - Fortune 500 CEOs, founders of household name companies, Hall of Fame and Olympic gold medal-winning athletes, political and military leaders - for intimate half-hour conversations each week. A top leadership speaker, Adam draws upon his insights building and leading businesses and interviewing hundreds of America's top leaders as a top keynote speaker to businesses, universities, and non-profit organizations. Adam has written extensively on leadership and related topics, having authored over 70 articles published in major media outlets including Forbes, Inc. and HuffPost, and has conducted more than 500 one on one interviews with America’s top leaders through his collective media projects. Adam teaches graduate-level courses on leadership at UCLA and is an advisor to numerous companies and leaders. A Los Angeles native, Adam is a lifelong Angels fan and an avid backgammon player.

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