A Practitioner's Guide to Business Analytics

by Randy Bartlett

"A must-read for anyone who is directly or indirectly leading or managing an analytics function--and anyone who wants to make better decisions based on analytics, not just intuition or an 'overemphasis on industry knowledge, which crowds out good analytics.'" -- Charlotte E. Sibley, President, Sibley Associates, a bioPharma consulting company "Over the long term, those who show the greatest imagination, grow the right skills, build the deepest organizations, and follow rigorous statistical practice will reap the greatest rewards from their analytics efforts. A Practitioner's Guide to Business Analytics lights the way." -- Thomas C. Redman, PhD, the Data Doc, Navesink Consulting Group "Executives beware. This is not your typical management book. This book contains real information from analytical professionals who are outside the executive bubble. . . . Hold on to your seat and be prepared to change the way you think about leaders, leadership qualities, and leadership skills needed for future success in the changing business landscape." -- Thomas J. Scott, Director/Advisor, Marketing Sciences Solutions, TGaS Advisors "Randy Bartlett has written an important and useful book, filling at least some of the large void between books that exhort managers to think more analytically without explaining how, and overly technical books that only quantitative analysts would appreciate. Particular strengths are the recommendations about how to organize to integrate analytical expertise into decision-making and the guidance about how managers can assess whether they are getting good analytical advice." -- Douglas A. Samuelson, D.Sc., President and Chief Scientist, InfoLogix, Inc., Annandale, VA; quantitative analyst, inventor, entrepreneur and executive About the The real tragedy of a company failing while using analytics is the fact that its leaders will have the data to explain the failure, but they won't have the capabilities in place to filter the data and convert it into actionable business insights. One implication of Big Data is that we need to adapt . . . quickly. A Practitioner's Guide to Business Analytics integrates powerful strategies for leveraging analytics inside a business with a how-to playbook of tactics to make it happen. The case for competing based on analytics is clear, but until now, there hasn't been authoritative guidance for inciting a corporate community to evolve into a thriving, analytics-driven environment. This hands-on book gives you the tools, knowledge, and strategies to capture the level of organizational commitment you need to get business analytics up and running in your company. It helps you define what business analytics is, quantify the exponential value it brings to an organization, and show others how to harness its power to gain advantage over competitors. Accomplished business information professional Randy Bartlett brings his comprehensive coverage to life with firsthand accounts of using business analytics at brand-name global companies. Through in-depth examinations of success stories and failures in analytics-based decision making and data analyses, he fully prepares you

Genres: Business

287 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2012

Reviews

[Bailey · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am a practicing statistician/business analyst and I have found Bartlett's treatment of the field to be insightful and eye-opening. His experience in the field shines through his explanations of current best practices. I have already employed many of his ideas about BA group structure and dynamics. I also enjoyed his overview of the statistical tools he keeps in his top-shelf for solving problems he faces. There is something for everyone in this book in an organization that wishes to leverage data to move business forward, from practitioner (like myself) to the CEO.

[Monica · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book suffers from poor writing and editing. He uses initialisms before defining them. When he could say something with a thousand words instead of ten, he chose one thousand. The author comes off as smug rather than as an expert. The typesetting uses black on dark gray with ghosting for case studies making it more difficult to read than necessary. Is there another book that I could recommend to my instructor so the next class of students does not need to be subjected to this textbook?

[Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read, had planned on breaking the book up into chunks for reading, ended up finishing in an extended sitting. State of the art, and thankfully high level, view of the Quant Analytics industry from an experienced professional.

[James Keogh · Rating 5 out of 5]

We used this book in my Leveraging Data for Decision Making class. I liked all of what it said about adding a data analyst to organizations. There was nothing wrong that I found with this book. I just wished the class actually included some analytics to do if you are only a knowledge worker so far.

Bartlett does a great job of explaining complex ideas simply.

[Bishal Paudyal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great introduction.

[Doug Sameulson · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Randy Bartlett has written an important and useful book, filling at least some of the large void between books that exhort managers to think more analytically without explaining how, and overly technical books that only quantitative analysts would appreciate. Particular strengths are the recommendations about how to organize to integrate analytical expertise into decision-making and the guidance about how managers can assess whether they are getting good analytical advice.”

[Hakan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was a pleasure to read! It is well written and rich in content. They should have put the footnotes on the same page. Some of them are hilarious so you should bookmark them and flip back when you come to them.

Hakan Gagtas, Ph.D.

[Cliff Chew · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite a broad-based book that is more geared towards letting management understand some of the concerns and considerations of data analytics.