The biggest problem with Big Data, as it turns out, is not the data itself. Nor is it the hardware and software needed to handle even vast quantities of unstructured data. All of these things pose challenges. But the most difficult challenge posed by Big Data is finding people with the range of skills needed to deal with it.

The human challenge of Big Data is so large that it has spawned a new job description: Data Scientist.

And what exactly, you might reasonably ask, is a data scientist? One expert gave the Big Data Insight Group a rather daunting answer. According to Jesper Sparre Andersen, "what really makes the best data scientist is so subtle it's hard to describe, but I think it's in being able to create a narrative from the data."

You know you are in trouble when the answer to a semi-technical question sounds like it belongs in literary criticism.

Fortunately, Andersen expands a bit on his point: "It is being able to see the data and understand what the significance is within it and conveying that to someone who needs to know it but may not know anything about the technology behind it."

Even this is tough going. But we can put it in the universal language of examples. Suppose that top management wonders how we can distinguish potential customers who are merely "thinking about" buying from the ones who are actually ready to pull out their payment cards?

With Big Data we might be able to tease out answers to that question. (Or we might not – you don't know until you try, or at least ask the question.)

A data scientist is someone who can take that question, see ways to organize Big Data to find possible answers, and explain them to the executive who asked the question in the first place. And explain in a way that doesn't go hopelessly deep into the technical weeds.

This is not an easy combination of skills. A data scientist has to have a deep understanding of technology combined with a real-world understanding of business. At GRT Corporation we understand that we cannot always answer all these questions. But we can help guid firms toward the answers – and away from the snake-oil salesmen.