Over the last few years, the conventional wisdom has coalesced around a view that success in emerging markets is primarily a function of outstanding execution - speed, opportunism, tenacity, and guile - instead of a well-thought-out strategy supported by a set of winning and difficult-to-replicate organizational capabilities. In other words, street smarts are supposed to beat MBA smarts every time.

While the press and many companies continue to marvel at the sheer volume of data being generated and captured in the internet era, forward-leaning corporations have already recognized that big data's transformative potential to generate value in both the digital and physical realms will go largely unrealized unless it's complemented by speed. Fast data can unlock the value-creating power of big (and small) data.