Book Image

Building Analytics Teams

By : John K. Thompson
5 (1)
Book Image

Building Analytics Teams

5 (1)
By: John K. Thompson

Overview of this book

In Building Analytics Teams, John K. Thompson, with his 30+ years of experience and expertise, illustrates the fundamental concepts of building and managing a high-performance analytics team, including what to do, who to hire, projects to undertake, and what to avoid in the journey of building an analytically sound team. The core processes in creating an effective analytics team and the importance of the business decision-making life cycle are explored to help achieve initial and sustainable success. The book demonstrates the various traits of a successful and high-performing analytics team and then delineates the path to achieve this with insights on the mindset, advanced analytics models, and predictions based on data analytics. It also emphasizes the significance of the macro and micro processes required to evolve in response to rapidly changing business needs. The book dives into the methods and practices of managing, developing, and leading an analytics team. Once you've brought the team up to speed, the book explains how to govern executive expectations and select winning projects. By the end of this book, you will have acquired the knowledge to create an effective business analytics team and develop a production environment that delivers ongoing operational improvements for your organization.
Table of Contents (14 chapters)
12
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13
Index

Delegation of decision making

The final factor that I see on a daily basis in the project selection process for analytics projects is the delegation of decisions down to lower levels of the organization; executive management delegates the decision-making authority for analytics projects to the senior managers, who in turn delegate to the functional managers, who, in the majority of cases, default to what the head of analytics wants to do, or recommends, to the functional managers.

In one of my previous roles, I spoke with a senior vice president about how to prioritize the company's investment in analytical applications. I suggested that we organize a cross-functional group of executives and senior managers to review the lists of projects and assist in making fair and equitable decisions regarding where the analytics team would focus their efforts. The person thought about it for a couple weeks and when I came back to revisit the discussion, the suggestion was to delegate...