Posts Tagged ‘Data Science Book’

Data Science for Business

Sunday, September 6th, 2015

Data Science for BusinessI am catching up on a little light Labor Day week-end reading and Data Science for Business does not disappoint. Nearly every aspect of business provides opportunities for data collection: from customer sales and marketing to finance and supply chain management. And the Internet gives us almost unlimited access to external data, from stock prices, to airline flights to industry news. Data science is the methodology for extracting useful information and knowledge from the data. Retailers such as Amazon have figured out how to increase sales with effective data science by suggesting additional purchases to consumers based on their known preferences and tastes. Airlines use data science to optimize revenue yield by pricing flights with analytically rigorous methods.

All of which explains why data science is one of the hottest fields today, with the consulting form McKinsey and Company estimating that by 2018, the United States will face a shortage of 140,000 to 190,000 workers with the deep analytical skills needed to extract useful information from raw data. McKinsey further projects that an additional 1.5 million business people will need data analytic skills to know how to implement the findings of data scientists across multiple areas of the business.  So I wanted to learn more. This is a great book, although contrary to the authors’ disclaimer, it does presume at least an intermediate knowledge of statistics.

My two favorite sections of the book were, predictably, the example of data analytics developed by Wal-Mart to predict consumer demand for specific supplies as Hurricane Frances approached Florida’s Atlantic coast (answer: strawberry Pop-Tarts).  I also loved the sample proposals presented in the two Appendices to the book. They can serve as a template for sourcing and reviewing work from data science providers. The Fortune-500 is making extensive use of data analytics, but as apps and tools become widely available, soon small business owners will have to become more sophisticated about data science. I strongly recommend this book to small business owners who want to get ahead of the curve.