“Data is the new oil” is now a common phrase in business coined back in 2006 by British mathematician Clive Humby. Data is a powerful resource, but like oil, it needs refining. Whether tech-enabled or not, more businesses are realising the power of data to make more informed decisions and improve their products/offerings.
For tech start-ups, having a data-driven approach is especially critical to unlocking growth, understanding your customer, and monetising ideas. Data plays a key role in supporting the testing and iteration approach that drives innovation. Those who harness their data correctly can uniquely position themselves in a market and quickly acquire customers even when there are very small teams driving these efforts.
Is data in a scarce resource in Africa?
Despite the widespread awareness that data is important, there is limited literature that provides practical guidance on how to build data-informed businesses. This is particularly the case in the African context where there is a huge scarcity of data. And where data is readily available, quite often the quality is in question.
For instance, high level market data is often fragmented. Start-ups therefore find it difficult to estimate their market size, anticipate customer segments and subsequently develop granular market entry strategies. This can especially be frustrating for young startups who have few internal data points available for reference.
Adopting a data-driven approach
