Now you have a good picture of all the different skills you need in your Big Data team. Make sure you have a clear idea of what role you personally want to play, which could be either one of these or a completely different one. This will help avoid any future confusion or role proliferation.

The next most important question is when to assemble the team. As soon as you decide or have a strong desire to pursue Big Data initiatives, and have started identifying Gold Coins, get started on building the team. You must have your team before you invest significantly in the technology and infrastructure. You need to start by identifying the people who fulfil the requirements of the various profiles. Scan the people currently employed by your organization to see whether anybody matches up to the expectation. We have seen many instances where people with the required skills are tucked away in some other profiles in some other parts of your business. Once you get executive...