Look In-between the Data Sets for New Insights

Dateline: November 11, 2016 Welcome to our Friday WRAP – one thought-provoking idea to think about over the weekend. Recently I ran across a very insightful article about getting value from your analytics investments, written by Helen Mayhew, Tamim Saleh, and Simon Williams, a team of McKinsey consultants.  The article, Making Data Analytics Work For you Instead of the Other Way Around, … [Read more...]

AI and the Practice of Management

Dateline: October 28, 2016 Welcome to our Friday WRAP – one thought-provoking idea to think about over the weekend. According to Reid Hoffman, founder of LinkedIn, the practice of management is about to change in a big way, thanks to artificial intelligence (AI).  He shared his thoughts in a recent Sloan Management Review article, Using Artificial Intelligence to Set Information Free.  Reid … [Read more...]

Getting Started With Watson, Edison and Other Machine Learning Tech

Dateline: October 21, 2016 Welcome to our Friday WRAP – one thought-provoking idea to think about over the weekend. Have your executives asked about Watson or Edison yet?  With all the attention and resources being spent on artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning and cognitive systems, many C-levels are starting to wonder how to apply this type of technology to their business … [Read more...]

Reducing Resistance to Analytics Initiatives

Efforts to adopt analytics upset the balance of power in the C-suite, and this shift often had a negative impact on analytics initiatives. Dateline: October 14, 2016 Welcome to our Friday WRAP – one thought-provoking idea to think about over the weekend. According to a study led by EY Principle Chris McShea, only about 1/3 of the companies in his study achieved their goals for their … [Read more...]

Bain’s Customer Value Pyramid

Dateline: September 30, 2016 Welcome to our Friday WRAP – one thought-provoking idea to think about over the weekend. Continuing with our theme of using data to add value to products and services, today we share a wonderful article written by Bain partner Eric Almquist.  He published a blog that nicely summarized The 30 Things Customers Really Value.  To get the full list of 30, please refer … [Read more...]

Using Data for Your Customer’s Journey

Dateline: September 23, 2016 Welcome to our Friday WRAP – one thought-provoking idea to think about over the weekend. Last week, this blog shared an article about using big data to create customer value.  This week, we continue on that theme by sharing another HBR blog about How One Company Used Data to Rethink the Customer Journey.  SAS executive, Adele Sweetwood told the story of the SAS … [Read more...]

Data Around the Customer’s Job to be Done

Dateline: September 9, 2016 Welcome to our Friday WRAP – one thought-provoking idea to think about over the weekend. We can know our customer much better than ever before with the data we have about them.  And we can use that data to create opportunities to delight our customers more than ever before.  Recently author Karen Dillon published a blog, that suggested successful innovation is … [Read more...]

Making Decisions About Data

Dateline: September 2, 2016 Welcome to our Friday WRAP – one thought-provoking idea to think about over the weekend. Decision rights over how our data is managed is increasingly becoming a critical part of the CIO's role.  Access to, and the ability to manipulate, data is core to strategic and operational decision making processes.  Recently MIT researcher and author Michael Schrage … [Read more...]

Intuition vs Analytics

Dateline: August 26, 2016 Welcome to our Friday WRAP – one thought-provoking idea to think about over the weekend. Trusting analytics results over intuition can be big hurdle for seasoned managers.  With years, perhaps decades, of experience and honing skills to make tough decisions, it's a big leap for many to stop trusting their intuition and start trusting recommendations from the data. … [Read more...]

Managing Your Data Vision

Dateline: August 19, 2016 Data-first companies represent the biggest competitive threat to more traditional players. Unlike their older counterparts, data is integrated into their DNA, so they think and operate differently. The disruptive effects of such companies are causing more mature businesses to redefine "business as usual." Welcome to our Friday WRAP – one thought-provoking idea to think … [Read more...]