Data is ethereal, powerful, dense, precious and unrefined — kind of like crude oil. It just needs to be found and processed to generate revenue and create value for your customers and your company.

Unlike oil, data is everywhere. From the beginning of recorded time to 2003, 5 billion gigabytes of data were created, Fortune.com reported in 2012. But that same amount was anticipated to be generated every 10 minutes in 2013. Everyone is generating and consuming data almost constantly.

When trying to build a successful startup, it’s easy to become so absorbed in your day-to-day profit making so that you neglect the bigger picture. And before long, you’ve fallen out of touch with your target audience and its ever-changing needs.

Capitalizing on big data could spur the innovation your startup needs to reconnect with consumers and intelligently build a product or service they’ll love.

Financier Bernard Baruch once said, “Millions saw the apple fall, but Newton was the one who asked why.”

Let that quote inspire you to stop and think about how important asking questions really is. In science, it can mean the difference between routine and making history. And in business, it can separate the safe from the successful. Learn more >

Just a few years ago, most business professionals had little involvement in frontline or behind-the-scenes data — and for good reason. Mining data was a complex, time-consuming task. And if you didn’t know the language, translating the information was impossible. Learn more >