At Uline we hire many "analysts." We have analysts in every department. It's really unbelievable. What they are doing and what I think analysts should be doing are two different things.
What we have are excellent data pullers. Our analysts can pull data from our systems all day long. However, interpreting the figures and giving us "Top 3" suggestions to make Uline better…that is another story.
If you truly understand the data, you should be
chock-full of ideas and plans to make us better rather than just reciting data we can easily read. This year, I've been reinforcing the use of our tried-and-true reporting templates as a way for people to quickly summarize data and make recommendations for improvement.
"For businesses, being able to store, access and model data is
only one part of the process. When they do not have people with the right skills to convert that data into actionable business intelligence, return on investment will continually fall short of projections, no matter how incredible the technology."*
In my high school freshman English class we had to write a one-page weekly paper and we received 2 grades – one for content and one for grammar. Some "stuff" was just pounded into us. Looking back, I got lucky. How many kids today can say they know how to think and communicate their ideas, beginning with an outline to organize their thoughts? How many young people know their U.S. history or the capital of each state? You know, this old-fashioned stuff? How many can say they had a teacher who made a difference?
*Auld, Aaron. (2017, July 17) "The Big Problem in Big Data: A Lack of Skills." Retrieved from computing.co.uk
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