Gary Cokins
Gary Cokins, CPIM
Gary Cokins (Cornell University BS IE/OR, 1971; Northwestern University Kellogg MBA 1974) is an internationally recognized expert, speaker, and author in advanced cost management and enterprise performance and risk management (EPM/ERM) systems. He is the founder of Analytics-Based Performance Management LLC, an advisory firm located in Cary, North Carolina at www.garycokins.com. Gary is the Executive in Residence of the Institute of Management Accountants (www.imanet.org).
Measuring and Managing Customer Profitability
The only value a company will ever create for its shareholders and owners is the value that comes from its...
Are Marketing Analysts Homo Analysticus?
I enjoy maturity and evolution models of all kinds, especially for business. There is a stages of maturity model for information technologies and others...
Analytics and Big Data – Press pause on the Stairmaster
Our lives have become hectic. We are working harder and longer. We talk about life balance, but for so many of us we continue...
Analytics in a “city that works”
This is a difficult blog for me to write. Why? Because I grew up in Chicago that is known for being the "city that...
Analytics admittance. Adults unaccompanied by minors.
The Motion Picture Association of America's film rating system rates a film's content suitability for variuos audiences. For example, A PG-13 rating requires children...
Board of directors’ dashboards – Navigation or naivet
Have you ever wondered about how well boards of directors do their job? I have. And I do not have a good answer. But...
Analytics is like a dentist. It’s all in the inside.
My cousin Chris is a dentist. We are the same age, and we lived together when we were both in graduate school at Northwestern...
Intelligent people but stupid choices – try using analytics!
My previous blog on June 5 was about horse racing's prestigious Triple Crown race and its final leg, the Belmont Stakes. I posted my...
Horse racing’s Triple Crown – just like business analysts*
The Kentucky Derby and Preakness horseraces, the first and second legs of the USA's prestigious Triple Crown races, have been run. The winner of...
Being wrong versus being confused
Which is worse? Being wrong or being confused? Let's start with some definitions. To make a wrong decision means you were mistaken and erroneous....
Analytics for creating more choices
Choice covers both the capacity to control people and events, and an underlying belief in the possibility of such control. Being able to rule...
Tried and died. One and done. Learning from failures.
One of the frustrations I experience is when managers or analysts share with me that their organizations tried to implement progressive management methods, and...
An analytics story problem: When will two trains collide?
I recently presented a keynote presentation at the annual conference of the joint Ohio chapters of the Institute of Management Accountants. I shared the...
Please put the shower curtain inside the bathtub!
I take risks as a blogger to use blog titles, like this one, that does not indicate the blog's topic. So many readers will...
Kaplan and Norton’s future vision of the Balanced Scorecard
I define Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) much broader than its narrowly perceived view as a CFO initiative with a bunch of dashboards. Under EPM's...
Analytics takes the thumb off the scale
When I read an article written by Eric Garland, a strategic analyst, I was disheartened. Garland recently quit his job of 15 years as...
The waiter eventually arrives with the check
How long can an organization survive if it keeps making mistakes? How competitive can a company be if its decisions are bad ones? Who...
Once unimaginable analytics that are now practical
The combination of technology and analytics software is solving problems in ways that only a few years ago were unimaginable. Technology's contribution is with the...
The perils of analysts demanding perfection and precision
I refer to myself as a "ready-fire-aim" kind of guy. Although this is an exaggeration, it makes the point that I stop analyzing when...
The Academy Awards and business analytics
A year ago I wrote a similar blog as this one based on my finding the acceptance speeches at Hollywood's Academy Awards to be...