Putting big data and advanced analytics to work
Interview transcript
Getting leaders' attention Big data and analytics actually have been receiving attention for a few years, but the reason is changing. A few years ago, I thought the question was “We have all this data. Surely there’s something we can do with it.” Now the question is “I see my competitors exploiting this and I feel I’m getting behind.” And in fact, the people who say this are right. If you look at the advantages people get from using data and analytics—in terms of what they can do in pricing, what they can do in customer care, what they can do in segmentation, what they can do in inventory management—it’s not a little bit of a difference anymore. It’s a significant difference. And for that reason, the question being asked is “I’m behind. I don’t like it. Catch me up.” I get asked, “Who’s big data for?” And my answer is it’s for just about everybody. There are going to be data-based companies: Amazon, Google, Bloomberg. They’re great companies, and they have a lot of opportunity. But just because you’re not going to be a data company doesn’t mean you can’t exploit data analytics. And the key is to focus on the big decisions for which if you had better data, if you had better predictive ability, if you had a better ability to optimize, you’d make more money. Finding better answers So where have I been seeing data analytics recently? Well, the answer is in many places. Let me focus first on efforts to do better things with your customers. An airline optimizing what price it charges on each flight for any day of the week. A bank figuring out how to best do its customer care across the four or five channels that it has. Allowing customers to be able to ask questions and get better answers and to direct them. All of that is on the customer side of things. And then in operations, think of an airline or a railway scheduling its crews. Think of a retailer optimizing its supply chain for how much inventory to hold versus “What do I pay for my transportation costs?” All of that lends itself to big data—the need to model—but frontline managers have to be able to W6R?B?6??v??rF?R?&v?F???6?v?N( ?2F?Rf?&?V??"v?N( ?2F?R?W?7V66W72f7F?"f?"W????F??rFF??F?73?g&???W"v?&?( F?Bv^( ?fR&?&&?F?VBF?V??^( F?B?v?26??W2F?v?F?F?&VRF???w3?FF???FV?2?G&?6f?&?F????FF?2F?R7&VF?fRW6R?b??FW&???BW?FW&??FFF?v?fR??R'&?FW"f?Wr??v?B?2?V???rF???W"?W&F???2?"??W"7W7F??W"???FV??r?2??&?WBW6??rF?BFFF?vWBv?&?&?R??FV?2F?B6?V?F?W"?V???R&VF?7B&WGFW"?"???r??RF??F???R&WGFW"??FW&?2?b??W"'W6??W72??BF?RF??&B7V66W72f7F?"?2&?WBG&?6f?&??rF?R6????F?F?RGf?FvR?bF?BFF????FV?2?F??2?2??&?WB6???RF???2f?"??vW'>( FF?V&??rF?v???F?RG&????rf?"??vW'26?F?W?V?FW'7F?B??fR6??f?FV?6R????B6?W6RF?RF???2?G&?6f?&??r??W"6????F?F?RGf?FvR?bFF?B??F?72?2F?R?&B'B??????p???