Win with Advanced Business Analytics: Creating Business Value from Your Data

Chapter 1

The Challenge of Business Analytics

“In God we trust, all others bring data.”

—Edward Deming

Those of you who have teenagers in high school living under your roof understand what a transitional life stage this is for your kids. It is a time of many ups and downs, with great memories being created and, in some cases, momentous life struggles beginning. If you don’t have teenagers in your home, imagine for a moment that you have a 17-year-old daughter in high school. She’s a wonderful kid, very personable and outgoing, and excels at most things she attempts. You’re very proud of her—she is on the honor roll, has a lot of nice friends, has the responsibility of an after-school job, has visions of college, and even has a long-term boyfriend of whom you approve. Being a good parent, you also occasionally monitor her computer use and e-mail activity. You notice that she is getting a lot of e-mails from a retailer to encourage her to buy baby and pregnancy-related items and are concerned that the retailer is glamorizing the notion of teen pregnancy and encouraging her to get pregnant. Furious, you storm into the retailer in person, read the manager the riot act, and demand that these e-mails stop. The retailer humbly apologizes and vows to stop the e-mails. Satisfied, you head home and relate entire experience to your teenage daughter. To your surprise, she reveals to you that she is indeed pregnant and is expecting a baby in five months.

According to a New York Times story, ...