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Secrets of Analytical Leaders: Insights from Information Insiders
Imagine spending a day with top analytical leaders and asking any question you want. In this book, Wayne Eckerson illustrates analytical best practices by weaving his perspective with commentary from seven directors of analytics who unveil their secrets of success. With an innovative flair, Eckerson tackles a complex subject with clarity and insight. Each of the book's 20 chapters is a stand-alone essay on an analytical topic, yet collectively they form a concise methodology about how to implement a successful analytics program.
Wayne Eckerson has created a unique - and uniquely valuable - book in "The Secrets of Analytical Leaders." He's pulled together the insights of seven leading analytics practitioners, and combined them with his own considerable experience. The result is an interesting dialogue among some really smart and distinguished people. I'm not sure which is more interesting - the format or the content!
Thomas H. Davenport
Visiting Professor, Harvard Business School
Co-Founder and Director of Research
International Institute for Analytics
Professors are hard at work molding the world's future analytical leaders - but the chasm between theoretical textbook learning and the real world is considerable. Wayne, with his customary clarity and insight, helps professors cross the chasm by delivering frameworks, commentary, and scenarios that are real, interesting, and important.
Hugh Watson
Professor of MIS and a C. Herman and Mary Virginia Chair of Business Administration
Terry College of Business, University of Georgia
and
Barbara Wixom
Associate Professor at the McIntire School of Commerce, University of Virginia
Research Affiliate, Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
From the Foreword by Michael Halbherr, Executive Vice President, Nokia
We are living in a time of radical change. From my vantage point as head of Nokia's Location and Commerce business, I see many business and technical trends shaping our future—and all depend on a new data. In our mapping business, I see the need to evolve from a road-centric tool to something that allows people to truly understand and maneuver the complexities of a modern city. To accomplish this, we need a lot of data and ways to correlate disparate information into what we call "Smart Data." Analytics is core to what we do, and how we deliver value to customers today and in the future.
I recently spoke to the Nokia board about our data, and some members questioned how we could monetize this asset. Since a few members are executives in the oil industry, I told them that data is the "oil of the future", and that you monetize this new resource the same way you monetize oil, by spending time and money refining it. In our case, we are refining data about people, locations, social interactions, traffic, musical preferences, and so on to bring maps to life.
The analytical leaders profiled in this book demonstrate how to refine data for business gain and innovation. They play a pivotal role by bridging the worlds of business and technology. When supported by the business, they've delivered remarkable solutions that have given their organizations a competitive edge.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to monetize the most important resource of our data. It's written in language that both a CEO and a CIO can understand, and carries important lessons no matter what side of the business-technology aisle someone sits.
Wayne Eckerson has created a unique - and uniquely valuable - book in "The Secrets of Analytical Leaders." He's pulled together the insights of seven leading analytics practitioners, and combined them with his own considerable experience. The result is an interesting dialogue among some really smart and distinguished people. I'm not sure which is more interesting - the format or the content!
Thomas H. Davenport
Visiting Professor, Harvard Business School
Co-Founder and Director of Research
International Institute for Analytics
Professors are hard at work molding the world's future analytical leaders - but the chasm between theoretical textbook learning and the real world is considerable. Wayne, with his customary clarity and insight, helps professors cross the chasm by delivering frameworks, commentary, and scenarios that are real, interesting, and important.
Hugh Watson
Professor of MIS and a C. Herman and Mary Virginia Chair of Business Administration
Terry College of Business, University of Georgia
and
Barbara Wixom
Associate Professor at the McIntire School of Commerce, University of Virginia
Research Affiliate, Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
From the Foreword by Michael Halbherr, Executive Vice President, Nokia
We are living in a time of radical change. From my vantage point as head of Nokia's Location and Commerce business, I see many business and technical trends shaping our future—and all depend on a new data. In our mapping business, I see the need to evolve from a road-centric tool to something that allows people to truly understand and maneuver the complexities of a modern city. To accomplish this, we need a lot of data and ways to correlate disparate information into what we call "Smart Data." Analytics is core to what we do, and how we deliver value to customers today and in the future.
I recently spoke to the Nokia board about our data, and some members questioned how we could monetize this asset. Since a few members are executives in the oil industry, I told them that data is the "oil of the future", and that you monetize this new resource the same way you monetize oil, by spending time and money refining it. In our case, we are refining data about people, locations, social interactions, traffic, musical preferences, and so on to bring maps to life.
The analytical leaders profiled in this book demonstrate how to refine data for business gain and innovation. They play a pivotal role by bridging the worlds of business and technology. When supported by the business, they've delivered remarkable solutions that have given their organizations a competitive edge.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to monetize the most important resource of our data. It's written in language that both a CEO and a CIO can understand, and carries important lessons no matter what side of the business-technology aisle someone sits.
- GenresNonfictionBusiness
268 pages, Paperback
First published September 15, 2012
28 people are currently reading
116 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
August 14, 2016
Very interesting when top analytics leaders tell how they use analytics in big companies (e.g. Facebook, Netflix and Nokia). Highly recommended!
October 10, 2023
Every chapter is posed as a question from what is analytics to what is the future of analytics. The author answers the questions through introductory statements and definitions, but the bulk of the content is the insights from 7 industry analytics leaders answering the question from a practical standpoint. Some answers are similar (gaining executive support) and some are unique (implementation of analytical ecosystem). Though the book was published 2012 and quite old in a rapidly changing field, it was insightful and understandable. Much of the chapters included teams sitting together in close proximity for osmosis, knowledge sharing and collaboration - I would love for an additional chapter/question to be included on how to move analytics forward with virtual teams.
December 30, 2012
A series of interviews with heads of different analytical teams, from Kelley Blue Book to Blue Cross/Blue Shield Kansas City, Nokia to Netflix, U.S. Xpress to Zynga. Some very interesting tactics and ideas related to business intelligence and data, some I've seen at work, some I'm hoping to implement.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews