The Analytics Lifecycle Toolkit

CHAPTER 11Actioning Analytics

If you want to make enemies, try to change something.

—Woodrow Wilson

THE POWER OF ANALYTICS

As suggested at the beginning of this book, analytics is resilient, in large part because of its ability to impact the way we work, the decisions we make, and the outcomes we achieve. Analytics is a strategy that supports effective interventions and opportunity capture and, as such, analytics strategy is inextricably linked to action—turning data-driven insights into momentum for change.

There are literally thousands of examples of how analytics have changed organizations. Here are a few:

• In pro sports, analytics are being used to increase concession and merchandising sales, optimize ticket sales, identify top talent, and predict player performance.
• In human resources, analytics are being used to understand and predict employee retention and optimize “pay for performance” opportunities; artificial intelligence is a tool to identify potential talent before someone even applies for a job.
• Health care has seen a tremendous rise in the use of analytics for predicting readmissions, optimizing care, and managing entire populations.
• Even in nontraditional fronts, organizations are seeing the value of analytics to identify high-risk shelters in disasters and to help social safety net organizations identify children at risk for neglect and abuse.

In each of these cases, the focus and problem domain are unique, but the thing that ties them all together is the ...