Gary Cokins
Watch my hips, not my lips
Many organizations over plan and under execute. The managerial styles I admire are ones with a bias towards action. Not wild actions to run the train off the tracks, but actions that move the train forward. The most memorable managers I have worked for were...
Could Beethoven have implemented business analytics?
Could the great classical music composer Ludwig Beethoven successfully implement business analytics in an organization? I was educated as an industrial engineer, and I do not view myself as a scholar of the performing arts, literature, or classical music. However I have always been a...
Accountants’ darkest time is just before the dawn
CFOs and their finance and accounting function have been distracted from being their coveted strategic partner role because they are mired with regulatory and compliance work. That is now changing. They are embracing business analytics. The history of accounting I will substantially oversimplify the history…
Who are the animals of analytics-based enterprise performance management ?
Ever notice how the personalities and dispositions of animals often resemble humans? An organization's pursuit of adopting analytics-based enterprise performance management involves personalities of all types. How are they like the creatures that populate our planet? A blog is recommended to be less than...
Ambiguity and uncertainty are your friends
If you are a business analyst or are responsible for enterprise performance and risk management, then ambiguity and uncertainty are your friends. Why? If getting answers were easy, your salary would probably be lower! The search for surprises Regardless how analytics might be defined there…
Joseph Farrell (1935-2011) / cinema analytics pioneer
History reveals numerous examples of how blind influential executives and managers can be to breakthrough advances in their industry. For example, Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) had a dramatic rise and fall due to blindness and perhaps resistance to change. DEC was an entrepreneurial computer...
2012 New Year resolutions for CEOs and executives
January 1st, New Year Day, is a chance for proposing changes. The tradition is to make resolutions such as to lose weight or exercise more. Typically they are personal ones made by the individuals, but I have a new twist by making a resolution...
Why will analytics be the next competitive edge?
Analytics is becoming a competitive edge for organizations. Once a "nice-to-have," applying analytics is now becoming mission critical. An August 6, 2009, New York Times article titled, "For Today's Graduate, Just One Word: Statistics" reminds me of the famous quote of advice to Dustin Hoffman's...
Can analytics make your work more fun?
I've been reading job satisfaction surveys and the sad truth is that a substantial amount of workers find their work boring and/or unfulfilling. While those surveyed don't necessarily want to leave their jobs, they just want more enjoyment from their job – a sense...
Planner, pioneer, or explorer – which are you?
In my mind, there are three different approaches you can take when it comes to living your life. You fall into one of three personas – Planner, Pioneer or Explorer. While each approach is very different, they all have one thing in common: a...
Who are more effective – Specialists or Generalists?
In the book The Age of the Unthinkable: Why the New World Disorder Constantly Surprises Us and What We Can Do About It, the author Joshua Cooper Ramo makes us think if specialists or generalists are more effective at understanding the future. A study described...
In one eye and out the other
Managers and employees often rush to judgment when drawing conclusions and making decisions. They do not adequately appreciate how their decisions might be altered if they dug deeper with analytics to better understand the root cause of a problem they are solving or an...
Analytics yield loss – from research to use
Why is there substantial degradation of academic research in converting its findings in applications such as business, health care, and government? I ask this question because this week I am attending the annual conference of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences...
Can analytics create people who can lead?
At a recent conference of The Association for Operations Management (APICS) where I was a presenter I attended a provocative talk by Alan G. Dunn, President and founder of GDI Consulting and Training Company. He questioned if leaders are born or can be grown....
A Craigslist advertisement for analytics
Did you see the recent Craigslist website advertisement? It said: "Clueless managers seeking business analytics. Need to be easy to use and reliable. Impostors (e.g., gut feel and intuition) should not reply." What would motivate an organization to place such an ad with the Craigslist…
Start small. Think big.
Many organizations seem to have a problem getting started with performance improvement programs, initiatives, and projects including embracing business analytics. Is it analysis paralysis or brain freeze or just resistance to change? Why do they not know how to get started? Maybe they are...
Moving from possibility to probability with analytics
What could possibly happen to your organization performance results? At the operational level sales order volume could be up or down. Prices of purchased commodity materials like steel or coffee could be up or down. On a strategic macroeconomic level, consumer demand could be...