It's not your inventory or your brand, your trade secrets or your newest product line. The key to coming out on top in the new economy is hidden in your data. From daily receipts to banner ad click-throughs, powerful new software and services can take advantage of the one natural resource every business has: information.

This process of putting your customer information to work is called data mining, and it's powering the shift toward personalized customer service across every industry. Forget broad demographics; the name of the game is winning—and keeping—individual customers. You need to know their favorite colors and whether they prefer paper or plastic just as surely as you know what was on their most recent order. Why? So you can read their minds, anticipating what they want and turning them into loyal customers.

Sound complicated? You'll be surprised at how much you already know. But successful data mining means walking the fine line between serving your customers and encroaching on their privacy. We'll show you how to do it right.