I ran across this interview by Fast Company with LinkedIn co-founder about his new book The Start-Up of You and the need for companies to have a data strategy, or risk losing “potentially a lot” in the future.  Here’s that brief bit from the Hoffman interview:

What do companies miss out on if they don’t have a data strategy?

Potentially a lot. If you say the way our products and services are constituted, how we determine our strategy and maintain a competitive edge against other folks–if data is a very strong element of each of these, and you’re not doing anything, it’s like trying to run a business without business intelligence. I’m not sure I have a broad enough view that I would say every company needs to have a data strategy. But I would say many companies do. I certainly think that any company that is over 20 people needs to have a technology strategy, and data is essential to where technology is going.

LinkedIn has already been on record as not worrying about Facebook taking over their business.  According to Hoffman, “People with advanced degrees are three times more likely to use LinkedIn.”

You can read the Fast Company interview here…