Book Review - Competing on Analytics
With all the craze in the air about analytics book, I had been trying to get hold of it for long.Got a chance recently. Here is what I think about it.
This book has a clearly defined target market – mid to senior management professionals, who have not thought about analytics seriously, or those who are not well versed with use of Business Intelligence. This book breaks the glass wall for these executives, puts things in perspective and makes the word ‘Analytics’ much more approachable.
It puts many a thoughts in few tables and compiles them nicely in one place – something not readily available in the market today.
Simply put, this book is meant to convince companies to embrace analytics as a tool for outperforming competition. Period.
The book has two parts - one on the nature of analytical competition and one on building an analytic competency. The first describes an analytical competitor and how this approach can be used in both internal and external processes. The second lays out a roadmap for becoming an analytical competitor, how to manage analytical people, a quick overview of a business intelligence architecture and some predictions for the future.
The book outlines four pillars of analytical competition - a distinctive capability, enterprise-wide analytics, senior management commitment and large scale ambition. It lays out 5 stages of analytic competition from Analytically Impaired (flying blind) to Analytic Competitor (analytics as primary driver of performance and value).
For analytics professionals, it serves as a support for selling analytics services. It creates an aura in the environment that lubricates analytics selling.
However, it does not answer the question ‘How’. For analysts, more or less, this book ends up as an assortment of shallow descriptions of companies that use analytics as a competitive advantage. If one has reasonable idea about analytics industry, this book may not be more informative than a well written magazine article.
Author does not claim to have unique insights. Book does not promote any new principle of strategy. It does not teach how to implement tools. It does not discuss hardships in implementing analytics.
Anecdotes are repetitive – that too without convincingly demonstrating why those companies are so strong in analytics, or how one can follow their path. ‘Analytics’ is more descriptive than analytical – at least in the way book defines analytics. For an analyst, at best it gives some jargons to standardize and pull into vocabulary.
It is an interesting afternoon read but nothing worth retaining or referring back to. Also, if you are new to analytics, I would recommend you to skip the book and sit with someone who understands analytics. S/he would give a fairly good idea.
This book has a clearly defined target market – mid to senior management professionals, who have not thought about analytics seriously, or those who are not well versed with use of Business Intelligence. This book breaks the glass wall for these executives, puts things in perspective and makes the word ‘Analytics’ much more approachable.
It puts many a thoughts in few tables and compiles them nicely in one place – something not readily available in the market today.
Simply put, this book is meant to convince companies to embrace analytics as a tool for outperforming competition. Period.
The book has two parts - one on the nature of analytical competition and one on building an analytic competency. The first describes an analytical competitor and how this approach can be used in both internal and external processes. The second lays out a roadmap for becoming an analytical competitor, how to manage analytical people, a quick overview of a business intelligence architecture and some predictions for the future.
The book outlines four pillars of analytical competition - a distinctive capability, enterprise-wide analytics, senior management commitment and large scale ambition. It lays out 5 stages of analytic competition from Analytically Impaired (flying blind) to Analytic Competitor (analytics as primary driver of performance and value).
For analytics professionals, it serves as a support for selling analytics services. It creates an aura in the environment that lubricates analytics selling.
However, it does not answer the question ‘How’. For analysts, more or less, this book ends up as an assortment of shallow descriptions of companies that use analytics as a competitive advantage. If one has reasonable idea about analytics industry, this book may not be more informative than a well written magazine article.
Author does not claim to have unique insights. Book does not promote any new principle of strategy. It does not teach how to implement tools. It does not discuss hardships in implementing analytics.
Anecdotes are repetitive – that too without convincingly demonstrating why those companies are so strong in analytics, or how one can follow their path. ‘Analytics’ is more descriptive than analytical – at least in the way book defines analytics. For an analyst, at best it gives some jargons to standardize and pull into vocabulary.
It is an interesting afternoon read but nothing worth retaining or referring back to. Also, if you are new to analytics, I would recommend you to skip the book and sit with someone who understands analytics. S/he would give a fairly good idea.
posted by VKG | 10:57 PM
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1 comments
