Why Everyone Needs Analytical Skills
Welcome to the age of data. No matter your interests (sports, movies, politics), your industry (finance, marketing, technology, manufacturing), or the type of organization you work for (big company, nonprofit, small start-up)—your world is awash with data.
As a successful manager today, you must be able to make sense of all this information. You need to be conversant with analytical terminology and methods and able to work with quantitative information. This book promises to become your “quantitative literacy" guide—helping you develop the analytical skills you need right now in order to summarize data, find the meaning in it, and extract its value.
In Keeping Up with the Quants, authors, professors, and analytics experts Thomas Davenport and Jinho Kim offer practical tools to improve your understanding of data analytics and enhance your thinking and decision making. You’ll gain crucial skills, including:
• How to formulate a hypothesis
• How to gather and analyze relevant data
• How to interpret and communicate analytical results
• How to develop habits of quantitative thinking
• How to deal effectively with the “quants” in your organization
Big data and the analytics based on it promise to change virtually every industry and business function over the next decade. If you don’t have a business degree or if you aren’t comfortable with statistics and quantitative methods, this book is for you. Keeping Up with the Quants will give you the skills you need to master this new challenge—and gain a significant competitive edge.
Industry Reviews
Shortlisted for CMI Management Book of the year award 2013 (New Manager category) "an accessible and timely introduction to the data mining work of quantitative analysts." Named it one of "Four Books [that] Should Top Every Marketer's Summer Reading List." -- Forbes.com "goes into fascinating detail about how Intel and other successful companies--including Verizon Wireless, TD Bank Group, and Merck--help managers and data scientists understand each other well enough to collaborate effectively." -- CNNMoney/Fortune magazine "perfect for professionals who want a better grounding in understanding and applying data results to business goals" -- Midwest Book Review "Written for readers without a business degree or background in statistics, Keeping Up With the Quants explains how to read, interpret, and glean value from your data." -- T+D magazine (American Society for Training & Development) "the book makes for great reading for leaders trying to corral data in their organization." -- Small Business Trends (smallbiztrends.com) "Decision makers who want to understand how to utilize Big Data have a useful primer in Keeping Up with the Quants." -- BizEd magazine "a terrific book for those who aspire to be data-savvy consumers or managers, even for those who might become quants one day themselves." -- Seeking Alpha ADVANCE PRAISE for Keeping Up with the Quants: Erik Brynjolfsson, professor, MIT Sloan School of Management; coauthor, Race Against the Machine-- "As digital information becomes ever more abundant, quantitative literacy becomes ever more essential. There is no better guide to this new landscape than Keeping Up with the Quants." Daryl Morey, General Manager, Houston Rockets-- "Tom Davenport is the number one analytics expert in the world today. Whether you are an executive looking to integrate analytics in your decision making or a manager seeking to generate better conversations with the quants in your organization, this is the book for you." Jim Goodnight, cofounder and CEO, SAS-- "Analytics experts understand that the path to knowledge includes advanced data analysis. To bring everyone else up to speed, this book is required reading." Dr. Seung-Han Lee CBE, Chairman and CEO, Homeplus Group (Tesco Korea)-- "Insight comes from analytics. You can learn how to find treasure in your data from this book." Tim Phillipps, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited Global Leader, Deloitte Analytics-- "Analytics is not just a fad--it's the future. If you are looking for a competitive data edge, this book is for you." Dr. Gary W. Loveman, Chairman and CEO, Caesars Entertainment, Inc.-- "Keeping Up with the Quants provides a compelling and accessible road map for managers to understand the process by which analytic questions are framed, examined, and turned into powerful business insights."
