The Business Analytics Center at Georgia Tech’s Scheller College of Business recently hosted a panel discussion on "Improving Your Analytics Influence" within an organization. Panelist guests Pete Johnson from AT&T, Florian Quarré from Deloitte, and Alex Vayner from Equifax discussed the meaning of analytics influence, why it is important, and specific tactics to encourage a more data-inspired decision-making culture.
“Becoming an Insight Driven Organization is a long term endeavor made of numerous day trips: the organization must keep the end in mind. The implementation should be done iteratively and incrementally to prevent too much of a disruption,” explained Florian Quarré. “Such an organization will require change at the operational, talent, and technology levels – each will have to change the view of their purpose and their value toward the transformation to becoming insight driven.”
Over 150 guests attended the panel discussion on Thursday, Feb. 18 sponsored by RoundTower Technologies and Barnes and Noble. Attendees included industry professionals from a variety of companies, as well as graduate students and faculty from several colleges at Georgia Tech.
“The characteristic I look for most when interviewing candidates is drive - I’ve repeatedly found it to be the best predictor of success, especially on a team with an open-ended charter of designing innovative solutions,” said Alex Vayner. “Being data-driven is the only way for any company to stay connected with today’s customer, whose needs and behaviors are in continuous state of flux under the influence of the law of accelerating returns.”
Pete Johnson advised "Creating an analytic culture takes time… Invest in your infrastructure – make sure you can move fast! Create small wins and develop a cadence of relevant insights that grow upon each other while simultaneously tackling the harder long term."
“We're delighted to collaborate with the analytics community during such exciting times - thanks so much for connecting with us,” said Dr. Beverly Wright, Managing Director for the Business Analytics Center.
Upcoming Business Analytics Center events include:
- March 4: Master Modeler Competition
- March 25: Business Analytics Forum 2016
- May 10 and 11: Leveraging the Power of Data (Executive Education course)