Database Reference
In-Depth Information
Gutierrez:
What are some of the areas where you think the data-centric
investment thesis has room to grow?
Ehrenberg:
I think with healthcare IT—I don't even know if we're at the tip
of the iceberg yet. I think the areas where the biggest opportunities are also
have the most challenges. Healthcare data obviously has some of the biggest
issues with PII and privacy concerns. Added to that, you've also got sclerotic
bureaucracies, fossilized infrastructures, and data silos that make it very hard
to solve hard problems requiring integration across multiple data sets. It will
happen, and I think a lot the technologies we've talked about here are directly
relevant to making health care better, more affordable, and more distributed.
I see this representing a generational opportunity.
Another huge area in its early days is risk management—whether it's in finance,
trading, or insurance. It's a really hard problem when you're talking about
incorporating new data sets into risk assessment—especially when applying
these technologies to an industry like insurance, which, like health care, has
lots of privacy issues and data trapped within large bureaucracies. At the same
time, these old fossilized companies are just now starting to open up and fig-
ure out how to best interact with the startup community in order to leverage
new technologies. This is another area that I find incredibly exciting.
The third area I'm passionate about is reshaping manufacturing and making it
more efficient. There has been a trend towards manufacturing moving back
onshore. A stronger manufacturing sector could be a bridge to recreating a
vibrant middle class in the US. I think technology can help hasten this benefi-
cial trend.
Gutierrez:
How do you and your companies communicate to middle man-
agers in manufacturing companies the benefits of data, data techniques, and
cutting-edge technology?
Ehrenberg:
The most important thing—we're dealing with this in real time
with our companies—is that you've got to find a person that has the greatest
incentive to change. As an example, our company Sight Machine is investing
huge amounts of time in communicating with plant managers and heads of
quality at plants. You know—the people with goggles, hard hats, and steel-
toe boots. It is very important culturally to be able to speak to these people.
These managers and heads of quality are heavily incentivized to reduce the
costs of quality, so if you can show them a way of substantially improving their
results, which directly affects how their plant is assessed and how they are
compensated, then that's pretty powerful.
It's a little bit like the way successful businesses crack Wall Street. They don't
start selling at the top; they go to employees on the front lines feeling the
greatest pain. So they avoid the IT department and sell directly to the bankers
and traders. That's how BlackBerry became ubiquitous on Wall Street: they
sold direct and got users hooked on the product. And once the device had
