Nearly a decade after Steve Jobs introduced us to the iPhone, our society has been deeply impacted by the “Digital Trinity” of mobility, social media and advanced analytics. Mobility makes us perpetually connected, social media gives us a reason to be connected, and analytics ensures that the experience is increasingly compelling and profitable. The Trinity is not only feeding the growth of data in our world; it also is accelerating our hunger for more.

Contrary to what many pundits claim, it's not the volume of data that is the challenge for organizations; the technology relentlessly advances. Rather, the challenge is our growing expectation that organizations act upon our data. Each of us is increasingly “app-ified”—addicted to the predictive, persuasive, instant gratification that the Digital Trinity delivers. Organizations that think they have time to ponder this and slowly figure it all out have decided to be irrelevant, as the rest of us simply move on to the next compelling app that grabs our attention and feeds our expectations for more.

We now expect companies to analyze our habits, likes/dislikes, relationships, location/movement, thoughts and even our emotions, all in order to deliver to us a deeply personalized experience. At the same time, we expect a degree of control over such intimate information, or at least the illusion thereof. These expectations fly squarely in each other's face, and yet we expect companies to figure this all out, quickly.