Amazon is a database of products and customers. Ebay is a database of products, sellers and buyers. Google is a database of domain names and content. The tax authorities are a database of people and their earnings. Wal-mart is a database of products, prices, employees and customers.
Once you realize that the world is a database it becomes easier to create businesses. Somehow you are interlinking two entities. Ebay, Google, Twitter, Facebook and Amazon are simply databases. At the centre of any business is a database. If you can structure your database right you will go a long way towards building a good business.
Even if the business you run is not a virtual business – you can still think of it being based around a database. Whichever organisation you work at – school, charity or private company – you can see what and who are the players to make the tables in the database. Thinking of your organisation as a database will give you the right data to be able to measure and run your business better.