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Emerging data sources and technologies throw light on the industrial path with a new depth and dynamism. DASCA discusses about data science, the most competitive skill of the fourth industrial revolution for entrepreneurs.

Industry 4.0 is led by advancements in technologies such as data science and artificial intelligence. The two present-day concepts – data and industry 4.0 – interact symbiotically in a way that the industrial revolution requires data science, and the business ventures followed through the new technologies provide new data.

At this juncture, for an entrepreneur, it’s essential to be data-savvy, stay current, and track the new developments in the industry. Data-savvy companies attract more talent, stay more competitive, and report greater resilience to crises including the Covid-19 pandemic. Understanding data helps business leaders, entrepreneurs, and business strategists to understand their business and customer requirements. It also aids in predictive analytics and maintenance.

Let’s elaborate on the use of data in Industry 4.0 here.

Use of data in Industry 4.0

Industry 4.0 is inseparably tied to humongous data. The amount of data collected by social media, websites, marketing tools, IoT devices, and mobiles is humongous and varied in nature. Data is needed to derive insights for business, make business decisions, and train modern technologies such as Artificial Intelligence and machine learning. With data, organizations can:

• Improve their operational efficiency by detecting manual errors, performing quality controls, and optimizing productivity
• Eliminate bottlenecks as big data identifies variables affecting performance and guides production teams at no or a lesser cost
• Modify/optimize their product portfolios through accurate and meaningful predictions using data visualization
• Identify possible failures in operations before the machinery breakdown by identifying the breakdown patterns
• Understand the current demand in the market, identify the gap in the products, and research new products/services
• Improve sales by knowing the customers’ pattern of purchase, search history, and geographical inclination for a particular product/service
• Understand business directions, conduct financial analysis, and make strategic decisions such as development or expansion plans
• Analyze data from the past, present, and future perspectives and gain a holistic view of enterprise resource planning, product life cycle management, environmentally responsible systems, and business ecosystem

To summarize, this part of learning in one’s entrepreneurship journey gives the necessary shift toward a mobile-centric landscape and get access to real-time information and make an informed decision. Entrepreneurs can comprehend the business data, adapt to the changing trends, meet customer demands faster, and gain a massive advantage over their competitors.

Here is a list of a entrepreneurs whose products leverage their data science background.

Data science and entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurs	Company names/logos	Focus areas	Uses
Jim Goodnight & John Sall		Product	Data analysis
Christian chatbot		Product	Data visualization
Michael F Koehler		Product	Data and analytics solutions
Lars Bjork		Product	Data visualization
Arun C Murthy		Product	Big data management
Gurjeet Singh		Services	Solves complex data challenges
Carlos Guestrin		Services	Machine learning analytics
Dhiraj C Rajaram	Mu Sigma	Services	Streamline companies’ processes
Arnab Gupta		Services	Create algorithms for fraud detection, marketing, stock picking, risk management, and procurement
Anil Kaul		Services	Quantitative modeling for the right use of data
Andrew NG		Training	Open source courses platform
Sebastian Thrun		Training	Open source courses platform
Vik Paruchuri		Training	Open source courses platform
Lovleen Bhatia		Training	Open source courses platform
Gaurav Vohra & Sarita Digumarti		Training	Open source courses platform
Anthony Goldbloom		Community	Solve data science problems for companies
Gregory Piatetsky		Community	Solve data science problems for companies
Rohit Shivaprasad		Community	Solve data science problems for companies

Why entrepreneurs should invest in sharpening their data science skills

Data science is relevant and necessary for all industries and all levels. Though the companies may not be involved in creating data products, the use of data tools helps them to drive marketing and sales efforts.

Starting a company with a data science background is extremely workable with reference to the company’s progress. Becoming data literate helps to:

• Manage and communicate with the technical team
• Save investment cost, time and customers
• Ask the right questions
• Make better decisions
• Communicate value to Venture Capitalists and investors

Entrepreneurs can groom their data science skills by interacting with their team of certified data science professionals. It also helps to expand their network, which is a critical aspect for an entrepreneur. As an entrepreneur, you can use data to solve problems than relying on intuition.

There are data science certifications that help professionals to understand the science of data analysis and foster innovation. You can include those certified data science professionals as your team. You can check the most popular data science certifications offered by DASCA here.

• Big data analytics certifications
• Big data engineering certifications

Having the best data science team around you improves entrepreneurial talent, understand data science tools, processes, models, and its relation to business decisions. It hones your decision-making skills as you can assess applicable methodologies through real-world examples across industries.

There are certain books too that entrepreneurs must-read. Take a look.

5 must-read data science books for entrepreneurs

• AI and Analytics, Accelerating Business Decisions by Sameer Dhanrajani
  Essential for CXOs and entrepreneurs to develop AI and Analytics strategies in their enterprises
• Big data MBA: Driving Business Strategies with Data Science by Bill Schmarzo
  Helps entrepreneurs transform their business with big data
• Predictive Analytics: The Power to Predict Who Will Click, Buy, Lie, or Die by Eric Siegal
  Helps to understand predictive analytics works and its effect on everyday business
• Applied Artificial Intelligence: A Handbook for Business Leaders by Mariya Rao, Adelyn Zhou, and Marlene Jia
  Acts as a practical guide for business leaders to leverage machine learning for their business
• Data Science for Business by Foster Provost and Tom Fawcett
  Introduces the basic principles of data science for business

Conclusion

The current pace of labor market requires skill-based talent than just a degree-based talent. Job titles and degrees need to go beyond the basic skills, and one must expand their knowledge areas with the needs of the time. Understanding data science skills is a must for entrepreneurs in today’s world where all business cases are being informed, shaped, and reshaped by data.