Headlines

Small Businesses Are Facing a Growing Digital Disadvantage

Published

8 years ago

January 15, 2016

The little guys have to band together.

With large corporations relying increasingly on big data and analytics, Zoe Baird, CEO and president of the Markle Foundation, writes for The Hill that a “dangerous digital divide” is forming. Small businesses with fewer financial resources, she says, cannot match the investment that bigger enterprises are making in data and analytics, which could eventually put the little guys at a competitive disadvantage.

“Data has enormous power to transform a business, identifying efficiencies across an operation and spurring innovation. With advanced analytics, companies can forecast demand, optimize supply chains, identify emerging markets, and increase exports to the world’s growing middle class. … In order to grow small businesses, secure the jobs they create, and enable them to expand their operations, we need to break down the barriers that are preventing them from accessing big data,” Baird writes. She then proposes a few solutions, recommending that small businesses join forces with each other.

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