Book on Business Analytics for practising managers

Story telling approach has been adopted with each story highlighting the use of analytics in a certain business area. Some of the business areas and Models that have been illustrated are Credit Score, Monte Carlo Simulations, Base II framework, Portfolio risk and return, Customer Lifetime value, Predictive Modelling, Advertising, Newsvendor model problem, Statistical Process Control Chart, Cost Benefit analysis in Talent Management and Attrition Modelling.

Some of the interesting quotes from the book IIMA – How to Make the Right Decision to give you a sense of the examples in the book.

Now, since the variation in returns for stocks is higher than for variation in returns in real estate, an investor who avoids taking risks will choose real-estate investment and would be satisfied with the lower average returns of 10 per cent. She is guaranteeing herself a return of 8 per cent while there is a possibility of returns dropping to 5 per cent if she chooses stocks. On the other hand, a lover of risks would prefer investing in stocks as it gives higher average returns.

A theory of black swan events was developed by Nassim Nicholas Taleb The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable to describe highly improbable events that have a huge impact for the participant. It was such events that played a key role in the unexpected losses during the sub-prime crisis of 2008. These events are very hard to predict, although in hindsight, they can be easily rationalised.

Tata Steel India became the first integrated steel company outside Japan to be awarded the Deming Application Prize in 2008 for adoption of Total Quality Management practices and delivering on excellent quality. General Electric (GE), is known worldwide for delivering unmatched quality of products and services. GE imbibed the 6 sigma into its culture after the technique was originally developed by Motorola in 1986.

I would recommend this book for MBA students preparing for campus interviews. Also recommended for managers who want to quickly revise what they learned in a B School