Bruno Aziza - The Culture of Performance

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March 29, 2010

Got Insights?

This week, I had the opportunity to present at a global summit, in Vancouver, Canada. The event was chaired by Geoff Colvin, Senior Editor of Fortune and included great speakers such as Steven Levitt, author of Freakonomics and SuperFreakonomics.

As I was reflecting back on the sessions and the many discussions I had with attendees, a key theme kept coming back to me: you can summarize it by calling it "Unusual insights….coming from unusual sources."

For instance, we were reminded of the example of UPS, which saved 3.1 million gallons of fuel by optimizing routes to prioritize right turns. Steven Levitt shared with us the story of one IRS employee who had come up with the idea that saved the IRS Billions...yes...Billions of dollars. If you want to know more about these stories, feel free to watch my 3 min video blog at http://tinyurl.com/got-insights

Many of these insights were obvious but some were less. It feels however that the real discovery here has less to do with the answer than it has with asking the question! What did it take in each of these examples to enable the answer? (here, I don't mean the enabling technology, but the courage to ask the question and the tenacity to look for the right answer).

Do you have similar stories?

Share your stories and also tell us where the insights come from. A regular employee, an intern, a manager, an executive?

Best,
Bruno Aziza
Co-author, Drive Business Performance
Follow @ http://twitter.com/brunoaziza
Join on Facebook @ http://tinyurl.com/bruno-on-facebook
Find out about my book @ http://tinyurl.com/culture-of-performance-book
Subscribe to my blog @ http://tinyurl.com/culture-blog

Sources:
UPS story @ http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2008/07/10/right_turns_make_the_most_out_of_gas/
IRS story @ http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/02/magazine/02wwln_freak.html?_r=2&pagewanted=print&oref=slogin

Posted by Bruno Aziza at 2:30 AM | Comments (0)

March 16, 2010

What's your definition of "Analytics" (Part 2)

In my last post, I asked people to explain in simple terms the word "Analytics" and provide examples to make the definition come to life.

I knew that the discussion would be topical but I didn't anticipate that the responses would be so numerous! (if you'd like to know in less than 3 mins what others say about analytics, watch the video recap @ http://tinyurl.com/analytics-videoblog - others, read on!)

What did we learn so far?
* Analytics are often associated with prediction: Many associated the term "Analytics" with the idea of prediction - meaning that, while metrics might focus on the past, "Analytics" are best used to predict the future.

* Analytics are somewhat different from KPIs: While the difference between KPIs and Analytics wasn't highlighted much, many expected "Analytics" to be visual and provide a story behind the actual numbers. While "Analytics" might be the results of sophisticated statistical models and combine the wisdom of multiple measurement points, they should display information to allow anyone to understand trends and work with them quickly.

* Analytics are primarily created in the business: Some argued that while BI requirements were often assigned to the CIO's office, "Analytics" requirements should be assigned to functional heads (CFO, CMOs..etc) because they typically need to be customized based on the appropriate business questions.

Finally, some argued that "Analytics" are unique to a company. Many talked about the competitive advantage that analytics can represent for an organization.

Which leads me to another question: if analytics are so unique, and if they result in the combination of technology and the knowledge that only your employees have, can they ever be packaged?

What do you think? The discussion continues @ http://tinyurl.com/analytics-discussion , now with views from IDC, Forrester and TDWI experts.

Join in!

Bruno Aziza
Co-author, Drive Business Performance
Follow @ http://twitter.com/brunoaziza
Join on Facebook @ http://tinyurl.com/ykcwkap
More on my book @ http://tinyurl.com/ylpo6hj

Posted by Bruno Aziza at 12:15 AM | Comments (0)