Book Review: Code Halos

Code Halo is the term Malcolm Frank and his two coauthors use to describe the digital footprint that we create every day as we click, surf and explore the net. The book starts with the example of the six companies that have leveraged Code Halos to grow into a trillion dollar club. They are Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, Pandora and Netflix. These six companies had a combined value of $34 billion in 2003 and in ten years have a combined value of almost $1210 billion.They contrast the fate of their competitors (Borders, Nokia, MySpace, Yahoo, HMV and Blockbuster) moved from $125 billion combined value in 2003 to being halved in value with Borders, HMV and Blockbuster having gone bankrupt. They refused to play by the rules of the new marketplace. After all Borders and Amazon both sold books, but Amazon started to run their business by leveraging the digital footprint of the customer. They know what you bought and can make intelligent recommendations for you to consider.The falling price of sensors is giving traditional companies like GE and Disney to rethink their business. Disney has rolled out a $1 billion system that changes how visitors enter their hotel rooms to choose rides. All this is done by a wrist band that guests now have to wear. This wrist band collects data that Disney can leverage. That is not all. Disney had to train its 70,000 employees and add radio frequency readers to its 28,000 hotel room doors. Guests are happy because the system has reduced the park entry time by 25%. It lets Disney make money on theme parks even in a slow economy.Insurance companies are giving the choice of installing a monitoring device in your car that collects data about your driving (and speeding) habits. This data can get discounts on insurance costs for safe drivers. A sensor added to any ordinary device can create extraordinary possibilities. I used a pedometer that monitored how many steps (not enough) I was walking every day. You could use apps on your phone that could do the same. That data can drive behavior changes if you are so inclined.Take the example of your family physician. He or she knows each family member’s health history and also their behavior patterns. He knows who is likely to follow instructions, who is forgetful and who will eat the wrong food despite promises. The physician also serves as a trusted advisor who will tell us when a certain medication or procedure is unnecessary. Every company has an opportunity to do the same for its customers and employees. Knowing who they are and what they value is becoming the new way to win.Google has long been a case study for all HR professionals on how using data can help the employer to make the employment experience an extraordinary one by leveraging analytics.The Echo Nest (that was recently acquired by Spotify) has a platform that synthesizes billions of data points to understand artists and fans alike. The co-founder Brian Whitman says:We don’t just know that you like a song, we know what the key of that song is, how many times people called it “sexy” in the past week on blogs, and what instruments are in it. We also know, through the anonymized Taste Profile: how often you, and the world, listened, what time of day, and what songs you like to listen to before and after and how diverse your taste is.Most people’s musical tastes are formed between the ages of 17 and 24. Thereafter the changes are minimal in most people. That means that the taste in music can be used to predict many more things. Do you like crime movies? Then you probably enjoy listening to Jimi Hendrix, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Jay-Z, The Who, Bob Dylan, and Pink Floyd in that order. Music tastes are used to predict much more about you than you think <read this>The book makes a compelling case on how we can leverage technology to know our customers better and create a value proposition that is unique and personalized. I wish they had talked about how the same principles can be used by employers to make the employment experience meaningful. But now that you know how much about you can be known simply by knowing your musical tastes, would you want your boss to know that about you? Target used analytics to find out that a teen girl was pregnant before her father did. That is creepy. Data in the hands of companies always has the possibility of being misused.Code Halos is a terrific read if you are looking to understand the possibilities that technology can offer. There is a section on how to implement this in your organization. I did not find that useful because it ignores the most important part of driving change – the culture of the organization. Overall: I absolutely recommend that you read the book.--------------Found the review useful? Read my review of the new book The AllianceJoin me on Twitter @AbhijitBhaduri