Cambridge Business Association
The Value of Business Analytics
Book

The Value of Business Analytics

Identifying the Path to Profitability

Evan Stubbs
Wiley, 2011
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Editorial Rating

7

Qualities

  • Applicable

Recommendation

What is business analytics, and why should you care? Chances are – if you don’t work in the field – it’s mostly a mystery to you. In this readable introduction to the discipline, analytics consultant Evan Stubbs answers these questions and prepares analysts and their corporate colleagues to speak a common language as they pursue profitability and productivity. Filled with diagrams and definitions to explain the terms and concepts behind business analytics, this book would be equally useful in an introductory business analytics course or in a professional development program. getAbstract recommends it to business analysts who want to demonstrate the value of their work to their organizations and to nonanalysts who want to know more about what is going on with all of those spreadsheets, mathematical models and “datamarts.”

Summary

Business Analytics: What and Why

Given that modern companies have access to more data than they can figure out how to use, organizations need some new way to sort today’s mountain of information so their managers can assess its relevance and potential impact. Business analytics is the field that accomplishes this task. Analytics is “any data-driven process that provides insight.” Advanced forms of analytics use mathematics and statistics to reach conclusions. Business analytics specifically “leverages all forms of analytics to achieve business outcomes.” However, business analytics must both yield accurate conclusions and provide strategies companies can use. Part of this use unfolds in the process of strategic planning at three different levels:

  1. “Organizational planning” – This broad view concentrates on analyzing markets, deciding in what segments the business will compete, assessing acquisitions and developing the core capabilities to meet those objectives.
  2. “Business planning” – This blueprint centers on how the firm plans to stand out in the market, how it controls...

About the Author

Evan Stubbs works as regional product manager for analytics at SAS Australia/New Zealand. He has consulted with major organizations on the value and use of analytics in different industries.

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