In the digital era, consumer goods companies, like internet companies, use internally and externally generated data to create user profiles and membership systems to have more targeted and segmented production, operation, and sales. Their demand far exceeds what the human brain or Excel-powered traditional consultancies are able to do. Data technology is like a palantír in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings—a crystal ball used by man and elf as a means of seeing events in any part of the world. By contrast, human vision, no matter how acute, can only extend as far as one’s eyes can reach.

These days, a large consumer goods company has almost the same strong data productivity as a medium sized Internet company. Management in more and more companies hopes to manage users and data in the same way as Internet companies, then ma…