Have you ever wondered what the hotel industry has in common with the agriculture industry?
Here’s a hint that shouldn't surprise you: data.
Last week, I read a fascinating article in the Wall Street Journal headlined America’s Farmers Are Bogged Down by Data, by Belle Lin (this article may be behind a subscription-only paywall.)
The U.S. ag industry is about a decade into a movement to apply data and analysis to farm operations using tools and software to gather information around everything from seed spacing to weather patterns and everything in between, designed to bolster crop yield and efficiency.
As I read, I was reminded again of how data really is that common denominator for all industries measured by productivity, whether productivity is the sale of hotel rooms, the yield of this year’s corn crop or the number of tubes of toothpaste a Walmart can sell in a day.
The data geeks among our Hotel News Now readership will enjoy this article, and probably, like I did, go down an agtech rabbit hole.
Farmers in the U.S. are a couple decades behind hoteliers, it seems to me, when it comes to data adoption in their field, so it’s going to be particularly interesting to see how today’s technology just hastens the uptake of data in that industry. Hoteliers of course had to slog through years of faxes and spreadsheets before data software really took off.
Another commonality: Analysis paralysis. Right now, farmers that do have access to this new crop — sorry, couldn’t help myself — of ag data, driven by software and technology, say they’re not tapping into all it has to offer yet because there’s just too much.
“We’re collecting so much data that you’re almost paralyzed with having to analyze it all,” corn and soybean farmer David Emmert told the Journal.
Sound familiar? Like a lot of hoteliers 15 years ago, right?
So many industries are poised to benefit from this tech-powered business intelligence era we’re entering, but it’s not a level playing field yet. There are industries such as hospitality that are finally catching up, industries such as agriculture that might be a little further behind and industries such as retail that have been marrying data and technology for efficiency and productivity for years.
Last month’s Hotel Data Conference general session speaker was Ray Boyle, Hyatt Hotels Corp.’s vice president of data and analytics, and he homed in immediately on the link between data and Hyatt’s culture of care: “Data is everywhere,” Boyle said. “It’s everyone. It’s every system. It’s all the applications.”
When an organization recognizes that data is generated and gathered at all levels, it can create what he called a “culture of data” that allows leaders and employees to harness data to use toward common goals.
In the hotel industry, those goals might be around customizing stays for guests, marketing, setting prices, anything. In the ag industry, those goals might be around figuring how much seed to buy to result in an efficient yield with less waste.
Either way, the data is telling the story. It’s determining where the story leads.
And here’s another common denominator that all industries hoping to leverage data through technology need: people. They need people to turn the data into the story that leads to success.
The hotel industry has so many data-savvy professionals at every level; I met a lot of you last month at the Hotel Data Conference. Those people are a big advantage for the hotel industry right now and will enable a real acceleration of business intelligence.
Email me, or find me on Twitter or LinkedIn.
The opinions expressed in this column do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Hotel News Now or CoStar Group and its affiliated companies. Bloggers published on this site are given the freedom to express views that may be controversial, but our goal is to provoke thought and constructive discussion within our reader community. Please feel free to contact an editor with any questions or concern.
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