ANALY ZE T H I S !
What is ‘real’ analytics?
Preparations for a career
in analytics should be built
on a three-legged stool of
computing skills, analytic
capabilities and business
effectiveness skills.
BY VIJAY MEHROTRA
14
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A member of our MBA Program Task Force was talking about recent alums who had been successful on the
job market, and early in her discussion, she cited the students “who had, you know, taken Vijay’s classes.” This
did seem a little weird – my classes have course numbers and names, after all – but we were all in the midst of
a very busy semester, and so I happily let it go.
A couple of weeks later, when an MBA staff person came by my office to propose adding a section
of one of my MBA electives, she mentioned the great
demand for “classes in my area.” I suggested that we
simplify things by just referring to them as analytics
courses (while my department’s name has changed
almost annually, the word “analytics” has always been
part of it). She responded equivocally, and looked terribly uncomfortable doing so.
Then, just before the holidays, I arrived a few minutes
late to a meeting of the Graduate Programs Committee (I
was giving a final exam that ran slightly over), expecting
to present my proposal for a new MBA course in data mining. However, as I organized my handouts, a colleague
seated nearby informed me with a chuckle that my new
“non-analytics” course had already been approved.
I wondered: “Why all this weird verbal tap dancing?”
Well, after some digging around, I got an answer,
though it was not a very satisfying one. During the last
academic year, my school had launched a new Master
of Science in Analytics (“MSAN”) program. The administrator who owned the program had apparently sought to
differentiate the content of his program by explaining to
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