Month: January 2015

Introduction To “Data-Driven Decision-Making”

Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure… than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.  – Theodore Roosevelt 

Making Data-Driven Decisions is one of the mottos I live by. It simply and powerfully sums up what I believe in as an analyst. In order to make intelligent decisions in all aspects of a business, you need to have the right data at the right time. That is what analytics is all about.

Whether you dream of being an analyst, aspire to be a better analyst or hope to surround yourself with people skilled in analytics, you have to strive to be different. You have to look at data as having the answers and analytics as the key to determining which answers are the ones you need.

My love for analytics comes from many places. When I was a kid I used to collect baseball cards and memorize all the statistics on the back of the cards. When I got into college I took a lot of courses on student developmental theory and learned a lot about why people are the way there are.

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I combined that passion with classroom teaching experience and then corporate training experience. During my time with Wells Fargo I was always the data guy or the reports guy, long before I had even heard of the term analytics.

All of these experiences have prepared me for what I do today; teach people about analytics and how to use analysis to make data-driven decisions.

My book, “Data-Driven Decision-Making”, is in it final stages and will be ready for publishing within a matter of weeks.

Doing My Own Market Assessment > Setting Up A Manpower Business

When I first moved here to the Philippines, the business model I set in motion was to set up a recruitment, training and placement business for analysts.

The concept was simple, recruit fresh grads, give them 2-4 weeks of analytics training and place them primarily in the BPO industry.

Three years and a lot of interesting adventures later, I am kind of back where I started when it comes to this idea of upscaling young talent and helping them get their foot in the door as their careers begin.

With that in mind, I am once again doing my own market assessment for the new business venture.

Last time I looked, I saw that the no one else doing analytics themed training and certainly not for the youth. I also saw over 1,000 analyst job posted in jobstreet.com and thought it was a no brainer to get into the business of helping fill those slots. So it looked like the competitive landscape was wide open. Three years later there are a handful of schools and private companies offering analytics-themed training. The pie has gotten bigger even though there are more people cooking the same pie.

College and Universities continue to churn out hundreds of thousands of graduates every year. And a nearly equal number of students leave school early because of financial challenges. However, there is a ever widening skills gap between the skill set of these students and the hiring requirements of the BPOs. There is a huge talent pool out there to be tapped.

The BPO industry continue to grow at double digit pace, with more and more requirements for new hires to not only start at entry level, but further up the food chain. Today I just did a search on jobstreet.com and there are 1,500 analyst jobs posted in jobstreet.com

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So, there is still a huge need for a manpower business that supplied an upscale level of analytics talent that higher education and private enterprise has not been able to meet.

This analysis is based on not just my assumption and my experience, but also lots and lots of cold, hard data.

2015 = Game On

So Many Marketing Plans, So Few Successful Ones…

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2015/01/question-checklist-for-reviewing-your-new-marketing-materials.html

Sharing Another of Seth’s Awesome Blog Posts >

For that new video, or that new brochure, or anything you create that you’re hoping will change minds (and spread):

What’s it for?
When it works, will we be able to tell? What’s it supposed to do?

Who is it for?
What specific group or tribe or worldview is this designed to resonate with?

What does this remind you of?
Who has used this vernacular before? Is it as well done as the previous one was?

What’s the call to action?
Is there a moment when you are clearly asking people to do something?

Show this to ten strangers. Don’t say anything. What do they ask you?
Now, ask them what the material is asking them to do.

What is the urgency?
Why now?

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Your job is not to answer every question, your job is not to close the sale. The purpose of this work is to amplify interest, generate interaction and spread your idea to the people who need to hear it, at the same time that you build trust.

You will rarely achieve this with one fell swoop, so be prepared to drip your way through countless swoops until you’ve earned the privilege of engaging with the audience you seek.

And that is the point we need to keep in mind with our marketing efforts… it will take many, many posts and shares and engaged convos to get us to where we need to be!

When I Put My Mind To Something…

Before anything else, I always remind myself to be thankful for my blessings. It has been a long and challenging journey to get to where I am today. More blood, sweat and tears than anyone would believe.

All the hard work, doing the right thing and being prayerful has however, put me in a position to be pretty successful at what I do. And what I do best is empower people to achieve their dreams the same way I have seen my dreams come true.

When I put my mind to something, I have a laser like focus. That focus drives me through difficult times and keeps me moving forward. For a lot of people, I know they have trouble dealing with someone who has such a powerful focus on his goals.

But that is what I look for in people to surround myself with, to add to my team and to be partners in opportunities. The ability to focus to me is a primary key to being successful.

On Friday I, as I was working diligently on a plan of adding as many as 12 new employees in the next few weeks. My focus on the challenge at hand, certainly ruffled some feathers and made a few people uncomfortable.

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Out of that focus came three action items that I could accomplish over the weekend that would do a lot to help our recruitment efforts.

In the short term, we need to augment our recruiting team. So I sent 200 LinkedIn emails to recruiters I am connected with to see if I can pirate one way from someone. I have an interview today with one and several others I’ve had convos with.

In the near term, we need to continue to diversify our marketing efforts. One of my goals has been to write a couple of business books. Two of them I have near completion, but I have been to swamped to finish them. So I blogged about needing a co-writer to finish them. I got several applicants and think I have already identified the one I want to partner with.

And in the long term, I want to get on the calendar of a couple schools to keep the pipeline of future analysts and DMAI employees going. I have one locked up at Jose Rizal University and  another in the works based on some FB conversations.

Some blessinga from above, a supportive family and a great team all help… but in the end my success is all a product of my ability to focus on a goal and just work harder at it than anyone else.

So there you go, the secret of my success is that I just flat out work my ass off and enjoy doing it.

Breaking Bad Data Habits

It’s a common mistake to get creative with your data in excel to such an extent that its next to impossible to use that data effectively.

The concept of keep it simple stupid is hard to follow as once a person has some data they tend to spend far more time formatting and decorating it then they do analyzing it. Its just human nature.

However when we don’t keep data in clean and easy to access formats, we pretty much make that data useless to anyone else who really wants to play with it.

The best and really only way to keep data useful is to have it in a simple column with 1 header row format. From that we can use numerous tools to both format and analyze the data like pivot tables and Tableau.

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How DMAIPH Uses Analytics > Doctor’s in Houston

I love public data mining projects like this…

Here is what we need:
A list of primary care, internal medicine, general medicine, and geriatric physicians in the Houston area who have written prescriptions for the atypical antipsychotic class of medications.

Specifically:

  • These physician specialties (primary care, internal medicine, general medicine, and geriatric physicians)
  • In these cities in the Houston MSA (Houston, Texas City, Pearland, Friendswood, Clear Lake, Missouri City, Sugarland, Katy, Cypress, Spring, The Woodlands, Tomball, Conroe, Cleveland, Kingwood, Porter, Humble, Baytown, Pasadena, Beaumont)
  • Can we get this mapped into an Excel spreadsheet with the following columns of data:
    • Separate columns for last name, first name
    • Specialty
    • Address
    • Overall volume of Medicare claims for all of the antipsychotic medications (quetiapine fumarate, Seroquel, Seroquel XR, risperidone, Risperdal, Abilify, olanzapin, and Zyprexa).

If you find research projects like this interesting, then DMAIPH is the place for you! 🙂

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Analytics Outsourcing – DMAIPH has successful set up Filipino analytics teams for over a dozen U.S. based businesses. Offering both virtual and office based teams that specialize in problem solving using data, new technology and analytics techniques is our strength. Finding and empowering analytics talent is increasingly challenging, but we have it down to a science. Contact DMAIPH now at analytics@dmaiph.com or connect with me directly to learn more about how to set up an analytics-centric team in the Philippines.

Word Of The Day: Cohesive

From Jim Collins, Good to Great, “Organizational Health is about making your business function more effectively by building a cohesive leadership team, establishing real clarity among those leaders, communicating that clarity to everyone within the organisation and then putting in place structures to reinforce that clarity on an on-going basis”

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Full Definition of COHESIVE from Webster’s:  exhibiting or producing cohesion or coherence <a cohesive social unit> <cohesive soils>

Examples of COHESIVE

 Their tribe is a small but cohesive group.

Religion can be used as a cohesive social force.

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Being more cohesive. That is my goal for January 2015.

Let’s take this team of experienced and well intentioned individuals and mold them into a more effective force for the development of the business.

Lack of structure is can be the death knell of even the best companies.

Our structure needs to be more defined and transparent.

Let us commit to getting on the same page and demonstrating that from top to bottom.  After all, Homies help homies, always!

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The key challenge is coming up with metrics to measure the cohesiveness of your organization.  I have figured that out, so if you need help, connect with me and I will show you how.

Analytics Leadership – DMAIPH specializes in arming the Data-Driven Leader with the tools and techniques they need to build and empower an analytics centric organization. Analytics leadership requires a mastery of not just analytics skill, but also of nurturing an analytics culture. We have guided thousands of Filipino professionals to become better analytics leaders. Contact DMAIPH now at analytics@dmaiph.com or connect with me directly to discuss a uniquely tailored strategy to ensure you are the top of your game when it comes to Analytics Leadership.