Building Analytics Teams: Harnessing analytics and artificial intelligence for business improvement

395 Pages·2020·2.765 MB·English

by  John K. Thompson

Building Analytics Teams
Harnessing analytics and artificial intelligence
for business improvement
John K. Thompson
BIRMINGHAM - MUMBAI
Building Analytics Teams
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In Praise of
Thomas H. Davenport, Distinguished Professor, Babson College
and Research Fellow, MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy, author
of Competing on Analytics and The AI Advantage:
"Much has been made of the data scientist as the hero
of analytics and AI, but John Thompson reminds us in
this book that the key unit of analytical performance is
the diverse and integrated team. Successful analytics
require a multifaceted set of tasks in a well-managed
process, and Thompson knows how to make it work. His
deep experience comes through on every page."
Judith Hurwitz, President and CEO, Hurwitz & Associates:
"John's deep expertise and real-world experience adds
depth to this excellent book. The focus on best practices
is an essential to the success of leaders in advanced
analytics."
Bill Schmarzo, Chief Innovation Officer, Hitachi Ventara:
"John's new book is designed to prepare business
executives for the hard and grueling job of building
an analytics-centric organization. As I would expect,
John does not pull his punches as his book details the
processes and even more importantly, the analytic
mindset that must be transformed in order to exploit
the customer, product, and operational value buried in
an organization's data. John's book is the most detailed,
real-world "roadmap" I've read for organizations that
want to become analytics-driven. But, as John points out
so well, this will not be an easy journey and requires a
management team with the fortitude to see it through.
But for those organizations who can follow the roadmap
and see the transformation through to the end, great
fortune awaits!"
Kirk Borne, Principal Data Scientist, Data Science Fellow, and
Executive Advisor at Booz Allen Hamilton:
"If you are reading this now, that means you are living
through the most dynamic period of innovation and
technological revolution in history. This 4th industrial
revolution is triggered by, fueled by, and sustained by
massive flows of data. Data flows into, across, and out
of organizations worldwide at the speed of light, that
is, at the speed of hyperconnected people, processes,
and products, capturing their behaviors, contexts,
influences, and outcomes. This intensely needed book
by John Thompson helps executives and managers
set up analytics teams for business value creation,
operational effectiveness, and mission success. The
fundamental requirement on these analytics teams is to
assist and maintain the forward progress of business at
the lightning speed of data. The various components of
data-intensive operational business systems are covered
tactically and strategically in this book: analytics
culture, advanced analytics project management,
team dynamics, and right-sized artificial intelligence
deployments. Competitive advantage is now a moving
target and insufficient for survival; dynamic market
leadership is essential. With this book, executive leaders
and analytics teams will be guided to develop sustained,
strategic, and even revolutionary advantage from
massive data flows through advanced analytics and AI
centers of excellence."
Foreword
Over the past couple of decades, analytics, for the most part, has evolved
from groups of report writers somewhat resembling "typing pools"
from days gone by to an assortment of organizational and operating
models requiring a wide range of technical and business skills. Few
have been witness to, or incited, these advancements more than John
Thompson.
But at the same time, in Building Analytics Teams: Harnessing analytics
and artificial intelligence for business improvement, you can sense
John's palpable impatience at how so many enterprises continue to take
old-school approaches to analytics, or latch onto the latest technology
trends with nary a thought given to the necessary introduction of
organizational change and team-based approaches. This is where this
book differs from others you may have read... or skimmed hoping to
find the answers.
As John's and my hometown legend Michael Jordan once quipped,
"There's no I in TEAM, but there is in WIN." Analytics has become a
team sport, and such teams require strong leadership to win at it. And
just as any player on any winning team will tell you, the organization
is bigger than just the players. It starts at the top and goes down to
the support personnel. With this mindset, John shares his decades of
experience, not just in building high-functioning analytics teams, but
also in bringing along the entire organization, from the top down.
Moreover, the book thankfully skips past the banality of building
basic business intelligence (BI) solutions and focuses exclusively on
advanced analytics such as data science and artificial intelligence (AI).
As those of us who have been in the business long enough have come to
realize, pretty pie charts, beautiful bar charts, and dashing dashboards
rarely move the needle on the business.
Over the past several years, I personally have compiled a compendium
of over 500 real-world examples of high-value and innovative analytics.
Only a handful of these stories were the result of some simplistic
hindsight-oriented analytics. Instead, for the most part they involved
teams of data curators or "wranglers," data integration professionals,
statisticians or data scientists, and visualization experts with an
unrelenting passion and unwavering executive support—in pursuit
of proving hypotheses, performing root-cause diagnostics, predicting
customer and market behavior, and prescribing strategic and
operational actions.
Sure, these kinds of projects had an IT component, but they were not IT
projects by any means. And if you had any doubt before reading this book
as to whether analytics projects belong in the IT department or not, John
makes it abundantly clear that they do not. Indeed, it is this straddling
of the domains of data, technology, and business that makes analytics
projects particularly challenging, and difficult to get right. Especially
the contemporary tug-of-war between the traditional and emerging
roles of the Chief Information Officer (CIO), Chief Data Officer (CDO),
and Chief Analytics Officer (CAO) can create all sorts of unproductive
drama. And the often-speculative nature of analytics, that is, hypothesis
generation and testing and retesting, can render even the most seasoned
leader scrambling for ways to justify projects up-front. Then there's
the issue of actually implementing the results. "Mr. Iknowbetter" and
"Ms. Thatsnothowwevealwaysdoneit" always seem to appear at the
moment when it's time to start applying the new analytics insights.
Organizations are rife with disparate assortments of personas, which
for the novice manager can seem to present roadblocks for analytics
projects. Yet John shares not only how to understand these personas,
but how to harness them inside and outside the immediate analytics
team. While "diversity" and "inclusion" may be the HR buzzwords
du jour, John goes beyond the bromide to explain precisely how
individuals from different personal and professional backgrounds
can coalesce into high-functioning and innovative analytics teams—
including, as he notes, hiring bright young people without preconceived
notions of what cannot be done. Additionally, the book details different
approaches to team operating models such as "factory," "artisanal," and
"hybrid" models, and the pros and cons of each, along with sound advice
on creating and managing an analytics center of excellence (COE).
While reading this book, I found myself sorrowful for the thousands of
analytics leaders who have struggled over the years without this kind
of experiential wisdom at their fingertips. At the same time, I'm excited
for today's and tomorrow's analytics leaders who, upon reading this
book, will surely become the "I" in "WIN" for their organizations.
Douglas B. Laney
Principal, Data & Analytics Strategy, Caserta
Contributors
About the author
John K. Thompson is an international technology executive with
over 30 years of experience in the business intelligence and advanced
analytics fields. Currently, John is responsible for the global Advanced
Analytics and Artificial Intelligence team and efforts at CSL Behring.
Prior to CSL, John was an executive partner at Gartner, where he was
a management consultant for market-leading companies in the areas
of digital transformation, data monetization, and advanced analytics.
Before Gartner, John was responsible for the advanced analytics
business unit of the Dell Software Group.
John is coauthor of the bestselling book Analytics: How to Win with
Intelligence, which debuted on Amazon as the #1 new book in Analytics
in 2017. Analytics: How to Win with Intelligence is a book that guides
non-technical executives through the journey of building an analytics
team, funding initiatives, and driving change in business operations
through data and applied analytical applications.
John's technology expertise includes all aspects of advanced analytics
and information management, including descriptive, predictive, and
prescriptive analytics; artificial intelligence; analytical applications;
deep learning; cognitive computing; big data; data warehousing;
business intelligence systems; and high-performance computing.