So much content, so little time...

A weekly round-up of the themes and posts I found particularly interesting or useful.

This week saw a good deal of conversation around the role of profits and purpose, as well as several posts on finding insights in today's world of Big Data.

Of profits and purpose...
Doing good is increasingly recognized as good business, but there's still a long road to travel.

It's Time to Balance Profits and Purpose highlighted that although organizations today generally understand that doing good is good business, their behavior still lags far behind.
The Bottom Line of Corporate Good argued for a holistic approach to business that sees people, the planet and profitability (the three Ps) as equal pillars in the corporate mission.
While Companies that Invest in Sustainability Do Better Financially demonstrated that a focus on sustainability generates greater returns on investment.
Helpfully, How To Find Your Core Purpose provided a practical guide for companies to discover their higher purpose.

Big Data needs you..!
The bandwagon for Big Data may be rolling, but it requires humans to turn it into insight.

Big Data's Human Component argued that the value of data to business relies on human intelligence, on how well managers and leaders formulate questions and interpret results.
Making The Information Firehose Manageable For Data-Driven Decisions gave good practical advice on how businesses should organize, to make use of the torrent of data to improve their decisions.
While Statistics Are Everywhere, So You'd Better Master How To Use Them highlighted the need for business managers to become better educated in statistics and statistical reasoning. 

In search of insights...
Of course, customer insights in the end are about understanding people. Several posts explored this.

Predicting Customers' (Unedited) Behavior reminded us that Big Data is about understanding people's behavior, rather than about the mind-boggling quantites of data being generated. People plus algorithms, in that order.
Your Current Customer Research Misses What's Most Important reminded us of the need to uncover the attitudes, emotions, and motivations that drive their behavior.
While The power of observation: How companies can have more 'aha' moments argued for the greater use of ethnographic techniques, to uncover real, but hidden unmet needs, using an interesting example.
Finally, Changing As Your Customers Change outlined a practical 3-tier approach to customer insight, that enables a company to change with its customers.

Talking of insight, let me know if you found this useful...