Analytics Magazine Analytics Magazine, January/February 2014 | Page 12

EXE CU TIVE E D G E The paradigm shift transitions from companycentric to customer-centric and from “we always have done ‘IT’ this way” to real time. That shift must be the focus of top management, which needs to take the offense and drive resource allocation for innovation and productivity to a customer-focused, realtime strategy. the layered sensing of the temporal and spatial context surrounding the customer. Decisions that address emotional desires of customers resonate in the behavioral economics that underpin our financial world. The closer we can come to a customer’s desires, the better – and better still to be able to influence demand by making customers aware of opportunities they did not know exist. That holds true for business-to-business decisions as well. The paradigm shift transitions from companycentric to customer-centric and from “we always have done ‘IT’ this way” to real time. That shift must be the focus of top management, which needs to take the offense and drive resource allocation for innovation and productivity to a customer-focused, real-time strategy. Executives who embrace such a process of optimization that both considers maximizing enterprise performance while minimizing risks will effectively revitalize every decision opportunity in marketing, production, distribution, logistics, operations, servicing and sales. And they will find there is no finish line when generating more shareholder value – only a continual cycle of improvement and a corporate culture of datadriven, sustainable excellence. Marty Ellingsworth is president of Verisk Innovative Analytics, a division of Verisk Analytics (www.verisk.com). Verisk Innovative Analytics is a member of the INFORMS Roundtable, and the author is a long-time member of INFORMS. Join the Analytics Section of INFORMS For more information, visit: http://www.informs.org/Community/Analytics/Membership 12 | A N A LY T I C S - M A G A Z I N E . O R G W W W. I N F O R M S . O R G