The emerging role of the analyst…

6 10 2011

A few days ago, I wrote about the analyst function being dead, which spurred conversations about the emergence of a new breed of analysts. Organizations, with all of their investment in data capture, data generation, and business intelligence, still struggle to use data effectively to make decisions. With the explosion of data over the last couple of decades, the analyst moved away from business and morphed into an IT role.  The role became more about writing business requirements and providing reports than understanding data and helping the organization digest meaning from it.

Now the analyst needs to move back to a business role, but with more of a mathematics and statistics background.  They have to be curious about improving the business and have the acumen to do it.  They need to know how to blend traditional data with today’s non-traditional data feeds from blogs, social media, video, etc.  The value of the analyst is back in creating business value through relevance, context, and timeliness.

To achieve this, the emerging role of the analyst requires a new skill set and must:

  • Understand how to derive information out of data and present it in business terms – this is perhaps the most important of all of the new skills.  The analyst must be able to take a tremendous amount of information and coalesce that information into business terms leading to action.
  • Integrate various types of information – as data is coming from all different places and in new forms, it is increasingly important to understand how and when to leverage potentially rich data, and decipher what is irrelevant quickly.
  • Design problems with various concepts – the analyst needs a consultative style in which different models are applied to solve ever more complex issues.
  • Use technology – with Business Intelligence, Planning, and Predictive Analytic style software becoming easier to use, the analyst needs to know not only how to use these tools, but when to use them.
  • Delegate – traditionally the analyst needed to do everything.  Now as technology, data sources, and businesses have become more diverse, the analyst needs to know how to farm out some of the analytics to specific expertise at the right time, guide the project, and integrate the results.

The analyst also needs to transform informational projects into a process where requests for information are appropriately managed. This includes breaking down information into four areas: persistent information or basic reporting of facts on a regular timeframe; performance measures that have higher level KPIs; problem analysis; and data exploration.

Gone are the days where the analyst was a report writer, spending too much time on data acquisition.  They must now know how to enhance data to get more out of it in a timely and fashion and present that back to the business in a manner that drives value creation.


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Categories : Analytics, Analytics & Business Intelligence, Customer Value

Analytics Blogarama

29 09 2011

You’re invited to join in the Analytics Blogarama!

Theme: The Emerging Role of the Analyst
When: October 6
Where to post: Your own blog
Who’s invited: All bloggers with an interest in analytics
How to get in on the link promotion friendliness: Send an email with title and url of your post to cliff@socialmediatoday.com.

Analytics bloggers Michael Ensley and Meta S. Brown invite you to join us for the very first Analytics Blogarama – one day when we share our individual views on a common theme. Smart Data Collective will be spreading the word and linking to all participants’ posts. All bloggers with an interest in the theme are welcome to participate, so please share this invitation with your blogging pals.

Why participate? Build your readership! Everybody gets a link from the Analytics Blogarama page. Collaboration among participants (exchange ideas, comment on posts, link to one another) is encouraged!

So, on October 6, post your take on The Emerging Role of the Analyst on your blog. Please include a link to the blogarama navigation page, so your readers can find their way to other viewpoints. And send an email with title and url of your post to cliff@socialmediatoday.com, so your post can be listed there, too!

Blogarama navigation page url: http://smartdatacollective.com/40832/analytics-blogarama-october-6-2011


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Categories : Analytics, Analytics & Business Intelligence

Why strategy needs to be specific…

20 09 2011

Today’s Dilbert strip hit on a couple of key thoughts, albeit in traditional Dilbert fashion…

This is a pretty simplistic, yet sadly realistic, manner in which we define corporate agendas.  We lay out a concept and expect the organization to translate our words into action.  What happens is that often the definition is fuzzy, which allows for all sorts of interpretation and a watering down of execution.

While a little nitpicky here, Increasing Market Share is a goal, not a strategy.  Why does this matter?  The primary reason is that we need to teach the organization to think along common lines. We need to communicate specificity – tell people exactly what we want.  The goal is to increase market share by 5%, and we are going to do this by increasing new product revenues by 10% and by $4mil in cross selling opportunities to our customer base.

Additionally, every company is striving for the same four things – Increase Revenues, Improve Profit Margin, Elevate Market Share, and Enhance Financial Health.  It is how we balance these four items that sets us apart from our competition, and how we tell the organization what matters.  Will we sacrifice a launch date and potentially our 3rd quarter revenue goal if a product is offline?  Will we bend over backwards to keep a customer from defecting?  Will we sacrifice margin for a new customer in a new market?  The company must know the trade off equation as most decisions impact something else.  Without understanding this, people make decisions based on what they want, not what the company wants.

Ask yourself how deep your organization understands its goals?  And then compare it to how specific the goals, strategies, and tactics are for the organization? If there is a gap, start somewhere and be very specific of what you want.  Changing the culture to be more specific is not all that difficult.


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Categories : Communication, Culture of Action, Operational Performance Management, Strategy Management

The analyst function is dead

8 09 2011

The role of the operational analyst has moved from the business into both Finance and into IT.  The Finance team typically focuses only upon the financial outcomes of the business and has left the operational side of the business to the IT team.

Here is a conversation a client of mine recently had with their analyst…

ANALYST: ” Here is the report on units sold this year.”

BUSINESS:  “What happened here?”

ANALYST:  “That is a spike in the data.”

BUSINESS:  “Right.  But what happened?”

ANALYST:  “That is what the data is showing.”

Sadly, this is not uncommon in the business world today.  Billions of dollars are spent every year on Business Intelligence software to help us visualize what is happening within the business, yet we are really no better off in terms of insight.

WHY is this happening?

  1. The biggest reason why this is happening is we have changed the role of the analyst.  It used to be a marketing person looking at marketing data, or operations looking at manufacturing information.  We have now moved that role to IT, or IT has promised that that can do it better with their understanding of data structures.
  2. We have wrongly assumed that a picture is worth a thousand words.  In BI terms, a chart is worth a handful of questions. IT can not predict that next series of questions and is then left to prioritize what questions to tackle next.
  3. The pace of business, or at least the pace and variety of business questions (like the data we collect) has risen exponentially and scaled faster than our ability to respond.
  4. IT is over burdened and lacks the political power and will to say “no.”  They are in complete reaction mode and lack the resources to cover the demand.

WHAT can we do to fix this?

  • First off, we need to understand the analytical gap within the organization.  IT can manage the data and needs to partner with the business, but the business needs to own the intelligence.  It is easier to teach the business a little about technology, than teach the IT resources about the business.  The business side needs to find that type of person who understands a little about technology, but has a solid mathematical or statistical mind with a curiosity about improving the business.
  • The organization needs to find a better way to integrate better analysis back into the management process.  We need to give the analysts a frame of reference in which to explore ideas and present results.  Some of this will follow reporting upon weekly/monthly operational outcomes, while most will likely by ad-hoc hypothesis or what-if scenarios about some aspect of the business.
  • The culture has to reward critical thinking.  This is not true in most corporate cultures.  All to often, the analyst is criticized for not “going along” with the current belief.  If the culture does not reward new thinking, then the analysis will quickly fall in line with visualizations that support the status quo.
  • Invest in tools and training beyond just the core cubes and reports of the BI market.  While a good portion of analysis can be done with Microsoft Excel and a data dump, the more we want out of our analysts, the more we need to give them.  We need them to look at market baskets, threshold containment, frequency curves, optimization models, assumption testing, correlations, and many other types of analytical tools.

 


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Categories : Analytics, Analytics & Business Intelligence, Culture of Action, Visualization

When More is much, much Less

2 08 2011

Recently I was cleaning up my Gmail inbox and it was clear to me that some people treat email like free marketing.  For example, Dick’s Sporting Goods was sending me 3-4 emails a week.  While I shop at Dick’s Sporting Goods and like the brand, it was very clear to me that they really weren’t paying attention.  My lack of response, nor opening of any emails should have been a trigger to them.  More was much, much less.  They were not alone, but one of the worst examples of over-communication.

Thoughts for email marketing:

  • Use the information effectively.  Not only have I asked them to stop emailing me all together, they have hurt their brand standing with me.
  • Test your campaigns.  Because they are free doesn’t mean everyone should get everything.  That’s just laziness.  There are too many tools out there not to be able to do some type of segmentation based upon gender, usage patterns, social, and economic demographics.
  • Learn! This is probably the most important aspect.  If a customer gives you their email address, then treat it like a valuable asset and learn from it.  It is not a resource to be used up.  Offer different things at different times, send emails in different patterns, send different offers and test the response.  And if they don’t respond to anything, pull back and wait.

I know this sounds way too obvious, but here is an example from someone with the size and clout to know better.  Chances are your marketing organization is overusing their free marketing channel and just don’t know it yet.  Go ask them for an analysis of how many emails are being sent out to each customer segment each week.  Ask them how often they clean up their contact list to trim out people who have never responded. And wait for the dreaded, “we don’t want to skip anyone in case this is the campaign that will get their attention.”  Trust me, there is a breaking point.


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Categories : Actionable Information, Analytics, Analytics & Business Intelligence, Communication, Customer Value

Strategy & Operational Performance Management Survey

21 07 2011

If you have a moment, take a few seconds to fill out a survey.  I’ll post some of the more relevant survey results here over time. Basically 7 questions and a place to fill in your answer if you want to share more.

Link to survey


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Categories : Communication, Culture of Action, Customer Value, Environmental Scan, Operational Performance Management, Performance Management, Strategy Management

The enemy of my enemy is my friend

19 07 2011

Strange what a few years means to the technology sector.  Google, once champion of the little guy, the individual, the anti-Mircosoft, now becomes the problem.  The Michigan – Ohio State rivalry of the tech industry was supposed to be Apple and Microsoft.  They have spanned great battles over the years – and better commercials…

Yet, all of a sudden Google is the evil invader in the space.  What else could make Apple and Microsoft consortium partners?

WHAT!!  Wait a second…

Nortel Networks, one of the great patent holders, is watching its power, influence, and ultimately its profits dwindle away.  Up for auction were a sizable number of its patents.  While Google was the early favorite, Apple and Microsoft teamed up with Ericsson, EMC, RIM, and Sony teamed up with each other to outspend Google.

While we get to wait and see what this means for Google, we can wonder what our competition might be willing to do to us given the opportunity?

  • How do external opportunities trigger discussions within the organization?
  • Who monitors the external market for us?
  • How do we leverage information to make timely decisions?
  • How well do we gamemanship our competition?  Are they better at it than us?

 


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Categories : Analytics & Business Intelligence, Communication, Culture of Action, Environmental Scan, Innovation, Process Improvement

Simon Sinek & the Golden Circle

11 07 2011

The RIM letter to BGR referenced a video from Simon Sinek on TED.  While I think he makes an incredibly difficult task seem a little too easy, I think he certainly raises some interesting questions.  He talks about the Gold Circle, how we market the what instead of the why.

Execution is far more difficult than transforming the marketing message from the “What we do” to the “why we do it”, it is more about leadership and a unique focus on the customer that is not easily replicated.

Anyway, here is the video….


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Categories : Change Management, Communication, Customer Value, Process Improvement

Research in Motion’s public battle

5 07 2011

When executives feel they have to go outside of a chain of command in order to voice concerns, we see perfect examples of the need for Operational Performance Management (OPM).  The current Research in Motion public battle is a great place to start.  An anonymous executive sent an open letter to Jonathan Geller, of The Boy Genius (BGR.com), to call out the current RIM culture.  What is more entertaining about this is the fact that RIM responds publicly, which only makes this sound like a bigger problem.

Highlights of the RIM letter:

  • You have many smart employees, many that have great ideas for the future, but unfortunately the culture at RIM does not allow us to speak openly without having to worry about the career-limiting effects.
  • We often make product decisions based on strategic alignment, partner requests or even legal advice — the end user doesn’t care. We simply have to admit that Apple is nailing this and it is one of the reasons they have people lining up overnight at stores around the world, and products sold out for months. These people aren’t hypnotized zombies, they simply love beautifully designed products that are user centric and work how they are supposed to work.
  • Teams still aren’t talking together properly, no one is making or can make critical decisions, all the while everyone is working crazy hours and still far behind. We are demotivated.
  • Strategy is often in the things you decide not to do.
  • We simply must stop shipping incomplete products that aren’t ready for the end user. It is hurting our brand tremendously. It takes guts to not allow a product to launch that may be 90% ready with a quarter end in sight, but it will pay off in the long term.
  • The truth is, no one in RIM dares to tell management how bad our tools still are. Even our closest dev partners do their best to say it politely, but they will never bite the hand that feeds them.
  • 25 million iPad users don’t care that it doesn’t have Flash or true multitasking, so why make that a focus in our campaigns? I’ll answer that for you: it’s because that’s all that differentiates our products and its lazy marketing. I’ve never seen someone buy product B because it has something product A doesn’t have. People buy product B because they want and lust after product B.
  • RIM has a lot of people who underperform but still stay in their roles. No one is accountable. Where is the guy responsible for the 9530 software? Still with us, still running some important software initiative. We will never achieve excellence with this culture. Just because someone may have been a loyal RIM employee for 7 years, it doesn’t mean they are the best Manager / Director / VP for that role.
  • However, overconfidence clouds good decision-making. We missed not boldly reacting to the threat of iPhone when we saw it in January over four years ago. We laughed and said they are trying to put a computer on a phone, that it won’t work.
  • Reach out to all employees asking them on how we can make RIM better. Encourage input from ground-level teams—without repercussions—to seek out honest feedback and really absorb it.

All of these are examples of what happens in almost every business culture I have witnessed.  It is certainly not unique to RIM. If you think this is not happening within your business you are sorely mistaken.

What can you do….

  • Foster honest discussions.  Stop punishing those who do not follow the company line. Reward critical thought.  Ask people to do their homework prior to the meetings.
  • Listen.  Tap into the collective intelligence of the organization.  1,000 eyes see a lot.
  • Act out.  Stress your opinion if you have a dissenting idea.If you love your company and passionate about what you do, chances are your opinions probably do matter.

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Categories : Change Management, Communication, Culture of Action, Incentive Alignment, Innovation, Meeting Management, Operational Performance Management, Process Improvement

Obesity in the US

29 04 2011

This is again perhaps a little off topic for me, but it does pose some really interesting strategic points for consideration…

The cigarette of today’s generation is fast food, sodas, and poor eating habits in general.  Obesity in the US is projected to be about 20% of our annual health spending – or roughly $350 billion (USA Today) by 2018.  This means the number will double from 10% of the spending to 20% by 2018.  Food related deaths account for more than half of our causes of death (CDC) and we focus very little attention to it.  And for the first time in decades the US life expectancy is projected to decline by 5 years (National Institute of Health) with this generation.

So from the viewpoint of Strategy, this poses a wild number of potentials.  Depending upon your industry this either opens you to a tremendous opportunity, or a concerning level of risk.

Opportunities:

  • Food industry – being an early mover to healthier versions of your food may attract more customers
  • Education – providing content for school, churches, communities, etc may open more doors for you
  • Healthcare – with increasing costs, providers that can target care to show health gains with children, or keep their clients healthier may see improved demand for their products while at the same time controller their costs.
  • Marketing – Branding your self as a healthy alternative
  • HR – being seen as a healthier employer may improve your retainment and attraction to new employees.  You may also see a reduction in your health care costs over time.

Risks:

  • Fast food – This entire industry may be about to come under ever increasing levels of attack.  The attacks will likely be on menu, ingredients, nutritional labeling, and potentially lawsuits.
  • Sports drinks – As parents become more aware of the level of sugar in these drinks, demand is certainly at risk.  As one of their core segments is children, it is also possible that even the marketing placement will be called into question.
  • Education – As Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution has clearly pointed out, he is certainly targeting the school system menu.  Once the parents get involved school district lunch menus will likely need to change dramatically.
  • Healthcare – spiraling costs will force most healthcare companies to make very difficult decisions to remain profitable.

Here is Jamie Oliver’s presentation on TED.

Here you can see the growing obesity problem in the us (CDC).


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Categories : Analytics, Analytics & Business Intelligence, Change Management, Communication, Customer Value, Environmental Scan, Innovation, Operational Performance Management, Process Improvement

Changing Market Place

7 04 2011

Yesterday in the NYTimes was a story about the speed of the changing U.S. race demographic.  As our demographic changes, so will tastes and demand.  Many companies have sat atop their markets feeling they are invincible, yet with these changes many of the companies will find out much too late that they were not as solid as they once felt.

Have you asked yourself any of the following:

  • What percent of our clients come from the majority?
  • Do we have products that meet demands from all sectors?
  • Are we at risk if the legislature, or governing boards, can their ethnicity over time?
  • Where are our biggest threats in this new market?
  • Where are our greatest advantages?
  • What else can we do to capture more in this changing market?
  • Where might new competitors come after our market?

If you are not strategically discussing questions like these, then you elevate your risk of something happening to undermine your position within your market.

 


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Categories : Analytics, Change Management, Culture of Action, Environmental Scan, Operational Performance Management, Performance Management, Process Improvement, Strategy Management

Pink Bat

9 03 2011

I know I have not published much here lately, but I have been writing a fair bit.  Some of these I have just been a little timid about sharing as they are a little inconsistent with the goal of this blog.

Anyway, while I was doing a little research about my current project I stumbled across this and thought the video was well worth sharing. In a nutshell, train yourself to see solutions to problems.  Train your business to be more aware, to take risks, but more importantly to always be thinking about solutions.

The following video is from Michael McMillian and while the book does not get the wildest of reviews, the concept is and short video is worthwhile.

 

pinkbatmovie.com


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Categories : Change Management, Culture of Action, Environmental Scan, Innovation, Process Improvement

Zombie Initiatives and Tasks

5 01 2011

Over the holidays I heard a story on Zombie Processes.  It reminded me of the number of these I have come across in business.  One of the luxuries of being a consultant is you get to ask “why do you do that” or better yet “what would happen if you didn’t do that anymore”.  As businesses grow and scale we often pick up a number of new initiatives, or increase the subtasks, and never kill off old ones.  We also inherit more and more “stuff” that people do that does not necessarily add value.

Zombies: A Zombie initiative/task is something that continues on because no one has done the favor of saying it is either over or complete.  It can also be a task that exists that no longer needs to exist.   Basically it is inefficient effort and time.

Do these exist in your organization? Absolutely and everywhere.  The key is not trying to fix them all at once – this will get you nowhere.  What makes the most sense is to identify your strategic goals and initiatives and start with the processes that support those goals.

Where do you start? Take a look at your critical initiatives across the organization.  Ask yourself which ones are going to provide the most strategic value over the next 12 months.  Pick 3 and define the value of those initiatives.  Are they about increasing/decreasing time, revenue growth, cost cutting, elevating customer value?  Figure out how improvements should be measured.  Set up serious targets and a process to manage improvements.  Roll up your sleeves and get rid of the Zombies.  And while again this is self serving, it does not make it less true – hire a consultant.  Have someone independent to the organization ask the questions.  Especially if this is a new concept inside the organization.  People don’t like change, they fear it will expose them or put them at risk.  This can lead to the wrong motivation for process improvement.

 

Stuff:  This can be projects, tasks, subtasks, processes, or simply job justification work.


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Categories : Analytics & Business Intelligence, Communication, Customer Value, Initiative Management, Innovation, Operational Performance Management, Process Improvement

Grab your Popcorn…Things are about to get really weird

9 12 2010

There are things you hope never happen to your business, some you even discuss and prepare against. And then it happens just like you planned: a rogue employee for the US government slips a little known website confidential material and suddenly, all heck breaks loose.

This example seems like a Hollywood sci-fi show, yet the effects and impact are played out in reality and cost innocent bystanders money.  What started with Julian Assange posting a few things have spiraled towards a digital Armageddon.  First was a smear campaign against Assange; true or not, things were leaked to damage his reputation. Then, those hosting WikiLeaks were pressured. It worked, and like a good fighter, he took the punch, regrouped, and counter-punched.  We know the story, it has been the same through time. All of a sudden he is seen as an underdog, and the following starts. He becomes the flag-bearer for those oppressed and in the shadows, who then rise up to support their black knight. And all of a sudden, businesses involved in some way are attacked.

So buy your “Go WikiLeaks Go!” tshirt (you knew someone had to make a t-shirt), grab your popcorn, and get ready for the show – this one is just starting up.  And I have a strange feeling Assange might be saving his best for last.

For those of you playing the home version…click here for a link to the Google news thread on WikiLeaks.

While you are at it, you might have a discussion about what would happen if your website is attacked.


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Wallet Alignment…Life’s Perspective

6 12 2010

We hear and often bemoan comments in many professions, as the judgements often seem settled from the outset. For example, while reviewing an x-ray he took on my first appointment, my chiropractor remarked succinctly, “You are an ideal candidate for chiropractic therapy.”

Surgeons see operations, lawyers see risks, dentists see cavities, policemen see crimes, and consultants see problems.  When you are a hammer, life looks like nails.

One of the core reasons strategy management consulting works well is it trains companies to let strategies align wallets.  All too often we take the advice of the squeaky wheel, or allow personal politics to drive decision making.  Strategy management is about a consistent process geared to drive decisions, fund initiatives, and find those that no longer serve their purpose.

    • How often do you hear employees complain about certain initiatives?
    • How often do feel your organizations fund pet projects?
    • How consistently are decisions based upon closing strategic gaps?
    • What is the process of funding new initiatives?
    • Could you improve on any of these?

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      Remember When…Google was the Anti-Microsoft

      15 11 2010

      Today, Facebook launched a new email service.  It has long been in the works as Project Titan.  While perhaps not a direct threat against Google, it is certainly an attack on Gmail.

      Remember back to the good old days…when we walked uphill to school in the snow both ways, when children actually played baseball (and not the video game version), when information was delivered with ink and paper, when cell phones were the size of our heads…

      …err I digress, remember when Google was the white knight against Microsoft.  We wanted to use Netscape just to make Microsoft mad, but IE was just better.  Ah, yes the good old days and the turn of the century.  Was it really just in 2000 when they signed the pact with Yahoo to make them the default search engine?  A mere decade it took them to go from White Knight to feared Big Brother.  It took Apple 26 years to go from 1984 to being mocked by Futurama with its Eyephone or from having their great anti-Microsoft ad campaign spoofed by TMobile in Piggyback.

      Has Google really done this in less than 10 years?  We will soon see.  Earlier this month Google found itself in a little hot water over their StreetView cars that were driving around picking geographically based personal information.  I understand that personal privacy may be dead, but I would venture a bet that if there is a backlash it will be aimed squarely at Google (and ironically in this case Facebook).

      Clearly not all markets move at breakneck speed, but it does tell a story of thinking about tomorrow in a more methodology approach.


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      Categories : Customer Value, Environmental Scan, Trusted Advisor

      Analytics: Frequency Distribution & Bell Curves

      8 11 2010

      A statistical method we often overlook is the distribution curve.  I think most of the time it is dismissed because people get nervous about using statistics if they are uncomfortable with math.  While there are some advanced concepts around using a frequency curve, it can also be used visually as a simple tool to explain results.

      A simple stats lesson….

      Normal Bell Curve – roughly 68% of the population is within 1 standard deviation (measure of variation) of the average and 95% is within two standard deviations. Below is an example of IQ scores.  The average score is 100 and 68% of the data is between 85 & 115.

      While this visualization doesn’t do a tremendous amount for us, this is what we assume when we think of populations, like customers and employees.  And because of our limited statistical training we make a large number of assumptions based on averages.  We love to look at average revenue: average revenue per employee, average revenue per customer, etc.  This thinking also gets us looking into the outliers (that <5% that sits way out to the left or right of the chart).  How much time do you spend on less than 5% of the business?

      OK, so back to thinking of this in terms of running a business….

      Let’s map out our revenue per customer.  I would be willing to bet it looks something like the following:

      If this is the customer revenue distribution, if we use the average number in our analyzes we can quickly generate a number of wrong assumptions.  First and foremost, our typical customer is larger than reality.  It might lead us to think we are serving mid-sized businesses than more likely smaller market customers.  I am also willing to bet our profitability per customer has a similar curve to it.  In this case we are likely spending money on the wrong customers and aligning our better services to a lower profit generating customer (or more likely a profit destroying customer).

      Do we need to use it in everything? Of course not, but it might help everyone once in a while to challenge our overuse of the mathematical average to reassess perspectives of our business.  A great place to start is map out the customer base in terms of revenue (profitability is better, but takes a lot longer to do).  It might just lead you to understand your customer (think customer segmentation) better.

      Real life example…I was once part of a research project to understand discounting to one side of the outliers (<1% of the business).  The outcome was to focus on reducing discounting to that <1% of the business.  What I argued was to focus on the larger part of the business, where the same efforts would have resulted in millions more in terms of profits.  It was a clear lesson is where to apply process improvement.


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      Categories : Analytics, Customer Value, Process Improvement, Targets, Visualization

      Lessons from the Vegas ecosystem

      1 11 2010

      There is nothing like Las Vegas. Suits and sweats sitting beside each other sharing risk. Long confusing mazes of machines that clank and spin and take more than they give.

      We can point to a number of great brands in this age, yet in many ways Vegas might be the strongest brand of all. Its current tagline “what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas” may also be one of greatest slogans.  It is the perfect pitch that both captures the spirit of the place as well as tap our primal instincts.

      Perhaps we can’t create the same type of offering as Vegas, and it may not be our cup of tea, but we should admire it and learn from it for what it has created. What was once a desert, an airport, and a couple casinos is now one of the most interesting consumer ecosystems. Now there are limitless entertainment options at all price points for all audiences.

      Above all things, Vegas is all about innovation. They are focused on the customer with unrivaled focus. They test, they listen, and they learn. Vegas is a 24×7 incredibly well lit human lab.

      What can we learn:

      • Test, move, learn. Most companies are stuck in ruts.  They do the same things over and over again.  New ideas are forced into ill fitting old marketing programs.  Customers are hit with the same message in various mediums. We fail to hypothesize and test any more.
      • Create and/or leverage communities. Vegas is all about mustering resources around the customer.  Bring more and unique services to your customers so they never have to leave.
      • Fill in gaps. Vegas is always looking at ways to fill in the seams around the business.  How often do you look for ways to not only increase the product offering, but look to enhance the ecosystem around you?  How well do you use the partners whose products depend upon you?
      • Be unique. Where else can you find a castle, a pyramid, a two story lion, and a replica of New York city all on the same street corner.   What is interesting here is that this is where I think the casinos are starting to fail a bit.  Clearly, Vegas is unique but I think the experience is starting to become too similar.  Every casino has a hip dance club, a comedy routine, high end shopping, and now there own Cirque-du-Soleil shows.  Needless to say, the unique stuff is what helps us differentiate ourselves from the pack.  Without it, we start to compete on who is cheaper.  That is a game only a few can win.

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      Visualization Methods

      14 10 2010

      I thought this was worth sharing….Periodic Table of Visualization Methods.  This is a nice visualization of the different types of visualization.  It shows some good examples, and some not so good examples of visualization. Make sure you mouse over the different elements.

      Rules of visualization designed to create action:

      1. Keep it simple, clear, and concise – with the emphasis on simple.  Don’t use complex charts to explain simple ideas.
      2. Know your audience.  Don’t present glorious details of each step in the analytical process to executives – trust me, they don’t care.
      3. Find a chart style that works well with the data.  Line charts show historical trending, bars charts do a better job of showing relativity.
      4. Don’t use 10 charts when 1 could suffice.
      5. Label well.  Take the time to make sure all of the information is explained.  The last thing you want to happen is for someone to look at it and say “what does it mean?”
      6. Understand there is a difference in analysis and presentation.  If you are trying to convince someone to act, then make sure the data (and you) tell the story.
      7. Start with the big picture, then explain (if necessary) how you got there.  People learn by seeing the picture first, then seeing how the parts go together.
      8. Document your assumptions.
      9. Explain your conclusions, don’t expect your audience to jump to the same answer.
      10. Highlight the relevant points within the data that augment your argument – use a color scheme that calls out the item if you can (red bars vs gray).  Do not be afraid to use the power of a printed report and some hand written notes with arrows to the corresponding areas.
      11. Understand where and why the data does not support your conclusions.  Be prepared to defend against those points, because your audience will likely be looking for ways to contest your conclusions.
      12. Practice what you want to say.  The more proficient you sound the more convincing you will be.

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      Categories : Actionable Information, Analytics, Communication, Culture of Action, Process Improvement, Visualization

      Breaking down Profitability

      12 10 2010

      One of my favorite bloggers / writers, Seth Godin, writes about “When the long tail is underwater” on his Oct 10th blog.  He actually touches on a couple of interesting points, how much time and energy is created that generates no value, and how do we filter out all of this information to understand what is relevant.

      Take for example the Droid/iPhone app market…Apps are everywhere, and try to do everything.  Apple and Droid both claim wildly unusable numbers of apps.  With all of these potential apps, ask your friends what Apps that they can’t live without and people get strangely quiet.  I had a few people respond Urban Spoon and one guy mentioned Wolfram Alpha.

      Seriously, hundreds of thousands of apps out there and we can’t create a list of “gotta have” apps? Yes, I know there are hundreds of those lists.  Read one of those lists and ask yourself which one will you be using a month from now.

      Sorry back to the point…Compare this to your company’s information:

      • How much data do you have?
      • How many reports do you have?
      • How much of it is relevant?
      • How much old stuff is out there that no one has any idea of its worth?
      • How often do you clean up the environment?
      • How quick do people respond?

      AND how often do you hear people say… I don’t have the data?  OR I am not sure where I can find the information I need?

       

       


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      Categories : Customer Value, Innovation, Operational Performance Management, Process Improvement

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