Competing on Analytics: The New Science of Winning by Thomas H. Davenport
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Impressive book. As I make my way through Drexel’s MBA program I’m finding anything published by the Harvard Business School press to be a cut above my normal reading material. While most of my reading of their work was through handouts for a MIS class and academically focused this book I picked up to further my education of the Web Analytics field.
With over a dozen pages dog eared this one will be on my shelf for the long haul. The competing on analytics stages model is by far my favorite part of the book. The chart ranking companies from stage one “analytically impaired” to stage five “analytical competitor” with each of the stages in between is fantastic. Not only does this book give great background on how companies like Harrah’s and Marriott became more competitive by using evidence based decisions, it puts together a step by step plan to take your company to the next level.
In my experience most companies struggle with analytics, and getting from stage 1 to stage five is very difficult. While the background and stories are great, the real advantage of this book is the charts you can pull out and show to others so they can quickly understand why having an analytically competitive company is valuable. While this is probably over the head of most general business readers, it is solid gold for anyone in business intelligence or web analytics.
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