Data Visualization in the Media
By LogicEvangelist | January 12, 2012
One of the joys of being involved in advanced business technology is the connection via the media with interesting and innovative minds. One of those I have recently enjoyed is David McCandless. Although I don’t endorse Davids choice of visualizations, I am inspired by his attempt to educate the mass market as to the ‘truthfulness‘ of the data being reported in media. A data value alone has limited value – it just is. Put together in context with other related data, and presented visually, and that single value suddenly takes on much more significance, or in many cases lack of significance. In his own way, David is bringing media alive, and making the data it presents more honest.
Topics: Data Visualization | No Comments »
What is a Business Intelligence Vision?
By LogicEvangelist | June 21, 2011
If we were to take the literal interpretation of the definition of BI, we might say something such as “Business intelligence [BI] is a set of techniques and methodologies that helps an organization make faster, more profitable decisions”. What BI actually means to your organization is defined from your BI Vision. So what is a BI Vision? – it is a short description that clearly defines what BI will deliver to you. It is the first step in developing your BI Strategy. This might be:
“BI will provide a tighter connection between our strategy and operations thereby helping us be more productive and more profitable”.
OR
“BI will deliver greater insight to our decision makers, enabling them to make decisions faster, and in a way that adds more value to our business”.
Your vision then defines the bones of your BI strategy – the best combination of techniques and technologies to meet the business intelligence [BI] vision of any one organization.
Read the full article ‘What is a Business Intelligence Vision?”
Topics: BI Strategy | No Comments »
Computer Games Used for Training in Decision Making
By LogicEvangelist | January 23, 2011
A prototype that could be used in computer games or e-learning to help train users in decision making is the focus of a study of researchers at Queen’s University Belfast. The theory is taht by using the game to help players improve their ability recognise and make allowances for their subjective opinions and biases, and accurately factor in their uncertainty over a decision’s likely outcome provides a robust basis for improved decision making.
Most of us are unconsciously biased in our decision making, based on past learning style and experiences. The game methodology helps people move out of their subjective conditioning and to analyse simple and complex choices in a more logical way.
According to Dr David Newman “Whether the choices facing us are simple or complex, a greater awareness of uncertainty and of our own biases can improve the quality of our decision-making. We believe there’s real potential for people to acquire that awareness through computer games”.
Most academic models or scientific based decision making tools can appear to be rather complex to many users. To help them understand the basis for decision making, and recognize how much subjective biases enter into decision making, the game may be a welcome catalyst to a de-programming of damaging Socratic educational backgrounds.
At this stage, the game is purely being used as a research tool to enable researchers to find out more about the thought processes and psychological mechanisms involved in decision making – but the potential for more interactive assistance for executive training in decision making is obvious.
The results in helping to make better decisions have yet to be determined, but it offers an interesting option.
Topics: Decision Making, Logic | No Comments »
Does Analytics Lead to Tunnel Vision?
By LogicEvangelist | January 4, 2011
I was reading some marketing material about growing a subscriber base and how easy it is to fool yourself into preaching to the converted. It got me thinking how the same could apply to analytics. The core foundation of analytics is to mine out those micro markets that offer the most profit. And there are many businesses today doing this very successfully. However, could we be in danger of then seeking more and more value from that micro market in a lifetime customer value model, and overlook new emerging markets? I remember many years ago when I proffered a new marketing twist on a housing product to a well established house building firm. The owners response was that “we tried that 10 or 12 years ago and it didn’t work? I was dumbfounded, not that he had dismissed my idea, but that he believed that something that didn’t work 10 years ago, would not work now.
Having worked as a roadmap strategist for high tech companies for many years, I can state with confidence that many products that will be delivered to market in 10 years time are not possible to build today, based on todays technical know-how. I also feel confident in stating that the market is almost spurning a new generation every 5-7 years. So it is very likely that something that was tried 10 years ago will work very well today. But not to dwell on trying to rationalize my marketing strategy [incidentally, the same business tried my idea a few years following and it was a huge success!!].
The point of my post is that we can fall prey to chasing the same big whale, and not notice that the other pools of profit that were not apparent at the time we first entered a market have now become whales in their own right – right under our noses. I urge you to do a blanket analysis across the market on a regular basis, preferably by an independent third party source unbiased by the businesses current focus.
Topics: Analytics, Marketing | No Comments »
Applying CPM to Your Personal Life
By LogicEvangelist | May 4, 2010
Performance measurement and management does not only apply to business. It also applied to life. There is a great quote ” The measure of a man is not how well he starts, but how well he finishes”. When one reaches the 40′s it is easy to fall into the trap of ‘slowing down and enjoying life’. The strange thing is, that for many people they find they enjoy life less. However, keeping up the natural energetic enthusiasm of your 20′s can be a bit of a struggle – especially on a cold morning when you just don’t want to get out of bed to work out for an hour before work. This is where having a plan, with distinct goals and metrics makes a significant difference. In the absence of a performance management system it is easy to cruise into middle age and suddenly fall prey to mid-life crisis. If you keep redefining your plan and work it every day, you are constantly seeking out new goals and reaching satisfying targets. You will achieve more, feel more satisfied, less stressed and happier.
So take what you learn from your corporate management program and think about how you can apply it to your life.
Topics: The Logical Organization | No Comments »
New Releases in TLO Management Insight Series
By LogicEvangelist | March 22, 2010
I am really excited to announce the release of two new additions to the TLO Management Insight Series:
- Leading With SPI
- Getting to Cloud
Leading with SPI – Driving Productivity and Profit using Strategic Performance Improvement
Leading with SPI provides a detailed, step-by-step guide to driving better strategic definition and more effective and efficient strategic execution. Using the powers of business intelligence, the key decisions of the business are focused around those points where real improvement can be made. SPI transforms the outlook of business leaders from a backward facing measurement system using traditional lagging indicators, to a more future focused KPI based performance improvement capability that delivers more opportunities to improve and move ahead of competition.
SPI starts with deconstruction of measurable strategic objectives to help focus the business on what’s most important, and by following a simple process, identifies the questions that must be answered at each key decision point.
The KPI used to measure performance are grouped around these key decision points, ensuring that what must be done, gets measured. And, gets focused upon!
Find out more about Leading with SPI by clicking here
Getting to Cloud – Discovering New Business Opportunities with Cloud Computing
Cloud is the missing power base that underpins data warehouses and advanced analytics. So many businesses are either prevented from implementing BI solutions or stall early into the project through the lack of processing power or clean data quality management. Cloud provides the opportunity to leverage the significant benefits of BI, without reliance on outdated, overloaded IT infrastructures.
Cloud computing is so much more than a power base for BI – with its foundation in virtualization technology, it is the platform that will transform the competitive base of business. No longer will small businesses be constrained in competing against their larger competitors through lack of IT resources. Cloud remedies that.
Cloud also impacts the IT reseller market – rather than disintermediation of resellers, Cloud offers an expanse of new service and product opportunities that were previously beyond the technical or financial scope.
Getting to Cloud looks at the questions both buyers and sellers need to be asking themselves right NOW. It provides detailed ROI case analysis and savings data for use in business cases…and so much more.
Find out more about Getting to Cloud by clicking here
Topics: The Logical Organization | No Comments »
Who Is Running The Business?
By LogicEvangelist | March 13, 2010
I have just been reading Robert Peston’s book Who Runs Britain? I recognised many parallels with Who Runs Business? With the Internet expanding the voice of shareholders across blogs, news sites and forums, is logical decision making being crowded out by shareholder pandering to silence the hounds.
Just how much time is spent in business fluffing a shield around reality to reduce it to a something more readily digestible to the shareholder. Have we gone too far in giving the shareholder more power than the CEO and his/her executive team?
Read full article Who Runs Business
Have your say below
Topics: Decision Making, Leadership | No Comments »
Demystifying Metrics, Measures, Dimensions and Indicators
By LogicEvangelist | December 3, 2009
Continuing on from the previous blog ‘Simplifying Business Measurement‘
Each business function has a core set of decisions that define it, and its connections with the decision-making processes of other functional areas. For each decision area there are:
- Goals that define its purpose – often set as ‘targets’
- Metrics that define performance to those goals, and
- Dimensions which help identify trends and variances in performance.
These result areas are measured by metrics.
Metrics and Measure
The terms Metric and Measure are often used interchangeably. To measure performance we need to understand:
1. What to measure – attribute
2. How to define its performance – measure
3. The degree which the element being measured possesses the attribute – metric
4. A context, useful for comparison – dimension
For example:
- Attribute to measure = Sale
- Measures for the attribute Sale = Sale Speed, Sale Value
- Metrics used for these two measures = Days, and $
Sales performance is commonly defined in terms of dimensions, for example ‘Sales x Week’, where the measure is ‘the number of sales’ using the dimension of time, in this instance one week.
Thus, metrics define the parameters in which performance is measured. They may be directly measured, or calculated using a combination of measures. For instance, if a sales goal is to be defined in terms of net sales, the metrics used to define performance include gross profit, fixed costs, variable costs, tax and interest. From these direct metrics, the Net Profit metric is calculated.
Metrics also help define performance that is not always directly measurable, often being subjective and intangible. A metric may be also composed from two or more measures, generally providing more meaning to the information.
Dimensions
Dimensions act like a context filter by defining performance to goals in terms of time, product, sales channel, territory, customer type, market segment, promotion etc.
Indicators
An Indicator is a metric or set of metrics that provide insight into a process or product. This is often a ratio of two measures across a dimension such as Year on Year sales.
Key Performance Indicators [KPI] are indicators that have strategic importance. They indicate performance that directly contributes to achieving high level corporate objectives. It is important to understand the difference between a KPI and Metric. A KPI is a Metric but a
Metric is not necessarily a KPI.
A KPI:
- Is linked to a strategic objective
- Is meaningful on all organizational levels
- Provides context to the performance being measured
- Is based on legitimate data
- Is easy to understand
- Leads to action
This extract was taken from ‘SELL MORE – AND HAVE YOUR CUSTOMERS LOVE YOU FOR IT‘
Topics: Measurement | No Comments »
Simplifying Business Measurement
By LogicEvangelist | November 30, 2009
When we attempt to measure the performance of a business we need to understand two things:
- How the business is defined – the terms we use for various items and attributes
- The measurement system to be used –
Business Terminology and Definitions
A business is defined in terms of functional systems – for example, Finance, Manufacturing Ops, Purchasing, Logistics, Marketing, Sales. Each of these systems is a series of processes. Some of these processes are contained within the functional area, and others connect with other functional areas.
Each process is defined by a series of Tasks or Activities. Each Task creates, consumes or destroys data.
Since the same item of data may be used by various functional systems, we must understand how making a change in that data impacts another system or task. We can only do so if the data is connected by definition in some way.
The easiest way to do this is to define or ‘name’ that data item the same for every part of the business. For instance ‘Income’ or ‘Revenue’. If both terms are used by different parts of the business, there is the risk that slightly different definitions are afforded to the terms. This can lead to miscommunication between business groups, and misleading assumptions read into reports.
In technology systems, if these data items are both used, the data management system must map them together in a mapping table to ensure that disparate systems know how each data set relates to another.
So you see, by having common business terminology and definitions across the whole business not only makes it easier for human communication, it also makes it easier for technical communication.
See Next Blog: The Measurement System
Topics: CPM | 1 Comment »
Review of New Media Analytics for the Obama Presidential Campaign
By LogicEvangelist | November 6, 2009
I finally had a chance on my weeks holiday to catch up with some reading and review and wanted to share this gem with you.
This video shares the experiences with Dan Siroker, previously of Google, then head of the New Media Analytics team for the Obama Campaign. Dan describes how the campaign used data to win the presidential election and shares the lessons his team learned along the way. One can apply these lessons to any data-driven decision one needs to make — whether it be in developing, designing, or even marketing.
Evidence, facts, science and feedback and how it was used interactively in the Obama campaign. Learn the top 5 lessons that should define the methodology of any new media campaign.
The five key lessons were:
- Define quantifiable success metrics
- Focus on your weakest links
- Never over-generalize
- Take advantage of circumstances
- Question assumptions
Topics: Campaign Management, Marketing | No Comments »