The application of big data was voted the "best management practice" of the past year, according to a ranking published by Chief Executive China magazine, a trade journal published by Global Sources, on Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2015 in Beijing.

Big data application refers to the process of collecting data sets that are normally large and complex enough to be analyzed by traditional measures. Indirect correlations are usually found in the process of big data analysis, which facilitates spotting business trends among other benefits.

Craig Pepples, the magazine's editor, said although big data is an abstract idea, "it is a way of understanding directly what customers are doing and what they want," which is a more realistic, practical way of looking at the application of big data in business.

"There will be more and more attention to feedback directly from clients, therefore making changes in the product or in the enterprise based on customers' needs," Pepples said at the launch of the annual ranking. He reiterated that the ranking was determined by a voting process rather than by any individual successful case involving big data analysis that his team came across.

Pepples attributed the ranking results to the fundamental changes that took place in China during the past year.

"Deepening reform, restructuring the economy, subversive innovation, the Internet of Things and the shape of 'One Belt and One Road' [the New Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road] were among the most heated topics in China. Management practices change along with the change of business environment," said Pepples.

Apart from the recent ascension of big data, global integration of resources and brand innovation took the second and third. This is the twelfth consecutive year that "innovation" or "brand" has made it into the Top 10 ranking.

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