Analytics has grown rapidly in recent years due to the proliferation of digital data and

technological advancements. As data becomes more important in our lives, analytics is

expected to become increasingly important in businesses. According to MicroStrategy's Global
State of Enterprise Analytics Study 2021, 93% of organizations use analytics to influence
business decisions. Another survey by Deloitte discovered that businesses that use analytics are
twice as likely to be in the industry's top quartile of financial performance. Analytics has several
business ramifications, including better decision-making, higher competitiveness, improved
customer experience, cost savings, risk management, and new revenue streams. The relevance
of analytics in driving corporate success is increasing daily as firms collect and analyze data. To
throw more light on the importance of Analytics for business, we spoke with Prof.
Venkataraghavan K, Associate Professor, Information Technology and Systems Area, IIM
Kashipur. A podcast version of this interaction can be heard on our Spotify channel, Vimarsh.

I:
The scope of analytics is so vast, and organizations can use big data analytics systems and
software to make data-driven decisions that can improve their business-related outcomes. The
benefits may include more effective marketing, new revenue opportunities, and improved
operational efficiency, so if I ask you, owing to the recent developments in the domain of
analytics and big data, how do you see the market changing and what are the users looking for?
VK:
Big data has been around for a decade, but it is only in the last five years that organizations
have been picking up pace in its adoption. First, I will try to answer why we need to tame big
data, organizations run several processes that are internal and externa. While running these
business processes, organizations do generate a lot of data. When we say “a lot of data” they
come in various forms, they come in various sizes, they come in various velocities. Now, you
need to have an ecosystem to collate this data first. Only if you can collate this data then you
can run some analytical models or some queries on this data. Then get certain insights from this
data. So, how do we do it? We do it by using big data technologies. Big data technologies help
in two ways. Firstly, they provided a distributed computing environment, and secondly, they
provided distributed storage environment. When we say distributed computing environment,
you now have the power of thousands of commodity computers to process your data. Likewise,
when we say distributed storage, you now have thousands of computers again, or storage
devices to store your data which would not have been possible in a single computer. Big data is
basically helping our organizations to tame the data and then extract insights from data. So
how do they do it? Organizations benefit from big data in three different ways. Firstly, at a
broad level, it could be business model innovation. Second, it could be process innovation.
Third, it could be product or service innovation. So, we will get into each one of them and see
an example. So first we look at process innovation. OK, so we all have been using Amazon. We
all have been using Netflix. We have been using prime and so many things. And whenever we
see a video or buy a book, we always get recommendations, right? So, what is the process of
innovation happening here? Earlier, without big data, we did not have the ability to understand
what our customers like or what the preferences of our customers are. Now Amazon or Netflix
have this ability to understand their customer more intimately. When they understand the
customer intimately, they are able to give them something the customer, something which they
like. When you give customers what they like, they are happier with the service and they are
happier with that experience. To be precise this is... process innovation, and it was not possible
before big data and analytics. Now it is possible with big data and analytics. So, this is a process
of innovation. Next, looking at product innovation, you can look at say, for example, household
appliances, right? We all use household appliances. We never know when they are going. To
fail, there are certain technologies that you can adopt which can work in tandem with big data.
Say for example Internet of Things. So, in such cases, what can happen? Our TV, our washing
machine, or our refrigerator can continuously send signals about their status to some big data
ecosystem. The health of these appliances can be monitored and then somebody who is
working in the organization can or the R&D team in the organization can look at these signals
and then do something about it and then work on the product improvement, so that way IoT
and big data can come together to achieve something which makes the product a better one, so
that is an example of product innovation. Likewise, you can have other examples to say, for
example, when you are looking at business model innovation right? Today we have platform-
based economies which were not earlier available. So, when we say platform-based economics
there are several examples from Amazon to Ola to Uber, and Airbnb for that matter, right? So,
these are platform-based economies, or we also use other terms called as gig economies. These
are possible only with the help of technologies like Big Data. That is, that is another example, so
we can look at many more examples. There are an infinite number of examples where
organizations have leveraged big data in their quest for innovation. Say for example in the case
of marketing. We all use mobile phones. While using mobile phones we do get promotions from
our service provider, but the promotion we get from our service provider. No two people will
get the same promotion. You may get one promotion. I may get another type of promotion.
How do they do it? How do the organizations manage this? That is because they are able to
analyze our footprint in mobile usage and then they come up with promotions, which are
suitable to you, and which are suitable to me. So that is another example. Likewise, if you take a
case, there are again thousands of employees working in the organization. There again, how
each one is contributing to the organization. The value is generated by each and every
employee, so that is again possible to measure and manage. When you have an ecosystem of
big data and then run some Analytical models or applications on top of it. So, these are
different use cases, primarily looking at, say, a business model point of view, process point of
view, or a product and service point of view, how big data and analytics come together to
achieve some innovation for the organization!
I:
Yeah, very well, said Sir, and this is now self-explanatory, how big data is playing a very vital
role in our lives and organizations do need to know how they can leverage more out of it. As
you have said, so on the same note, I would like to ask how would you recommend companies
should approach analytics and get started with it.
VK
So, when we are looking at the adoption of analytics, technology is not going to be a constraint
that is going to be the least of the organization's problems. OK, so where exactly does the
problem lie? The problem could be at three different ends, one is the inertia to change within
the organization. So, organizational change is perhaps the single factor restraining the adoption
of innovation. The second thing, we can say is knowledge gaps among the leadership in the
organization and the uncertainty of the business value. That the organization can acquire by the
adoption of analytics. So, these are three points that are not necessarily what you can say are
technology-related, but have something to do with change or some gaps in terms of knowledge
in the people in the organization. So how do you overcome them? The first is experimentation,
wherein the organizations can take in small projects and then see the business value of the
small projects. Once there is sufficient value in going ahead, then they can go for full-scale
deployment of analytics or implementation of technologies that fetch value out of the data
using certain tools and techniques. Second thing, how do we overcome the knowledge barrier
in the organization? That can be done through sensitization programs in the organization, so
senior leadership or people who are in the driving seat in the organizations can look at
programs through which they can understand how technology can help them. That is one
approach wherein they can overcome the knowledge barrier. Then they can also look at hiring
experts, right? So, organizations have people who have been working in them for many, many
years, so they have a good amount of domain knowledge. But then what they lack is the
technical expertise to tap into that domain knowledge in order to come up with some useful
innovation. How can you overcome that? You can overcome that by hiring experts who are
having profound knowledge of that particular technology. Say for example application of
analytics. So these are some ways you can overcome the barriers to the adoption of analytics in
the organization, knowledge barriers, or you can also say, inertia and uncertainty related to
business value. And one more thing, organizations can finally also do is create cross-functional
teams in the organization, right? So many times, we have been seeing in the recent past. So
finally, organizations can also look at cross-functional teams. So cross-functional teams do what
they do is put like-minded people together who can work on a particular project and then get
some useful outcome from the project. For example, you can bring in data scientists, you can
bring in data engineers, you can bring in BA experts together in a team and then work on
particular business problems and then solve it and then come up with certain useful outcomes
for the organization. So, build cross-functional teams, remove your knowledge gaps, hire
knowledge experts, experimentation, these are some ways in which an organization that is
exploring the adoption of analytics can take forward its initiatives.
I:
So, as you mentioned that technology is something that can be learned, but nowadays
organizations are more focused on Tech experts, and they are investing in senior leadership
towards technology. So, what is your thought process on that? Whether they should be looking
toward the business evaluation side or towards the technical aspects.
VK:
See, it's a mix of both, so there are certainly good practices that can be followed by
organizations in adopting these analytical tools and technologies and then going ahead with any
analytics project. First, do not worry about technology. The first thing organizations must look
at is the business value of any initiative. If they are sufficiently satisfied that there is some
business value, then they can embark on a project and there are certain industry standard
practices that have been followed for almost two decades now. One good example is what we
call CRISP-DM, which is CRoss Industry Standard Practices for Data Mining. So, it gives a
sequence of steps any organization can follow. Starting with business understanding, then
getting into data understanding, then model development, model evaluation, and then finally
deployment. So, organizations first need to worry about a business problem. Get the scope of
the business problem clearly and get the requirements clearly once the scope and
requirements are clear, then you look at what data is required in order to solve that problem.
And when you are looking at the data, you need to look at many things. Is the data of good
quality or are there certain governance practices as far as the Data is concerned? You need to
understand these things. Then adopt appropriate tools. Appropriate tools, meaning algorithms
and techniques, can use that data in order to answer that particular business problem. In this
case, you follow the entire process of machine learning or deep learning, or any other related
process. You can build models and then you test the models and when you are sufficiently sure
that yes, the models which you have built are good, then take the feedback of the business and
then go ahead with deployment. OK, so you actually follow some industry standard practices
like CRISP-DM or Not only CRISP-DM, it can be any other standard guideline as well, in order to
go ahead with any analytics project. The first question is not technology, but the first question
is business understanding and what is the problem we are trying to solve. And is it solved?
I:
Definitely. So, since you mentioned artificial intelligence and machine learning, so... my next
question is when it comes to experimenting with AI and ML across the three different adoption
stages, the experiment, the move, and improving and building analytical models from scratch.
Are there any best practices that you can highlight? For each of these three different journeys,
when it comes to AI and ML.
VK:
OK, so just like I answered in the previous question, one of the best practices is CRISP-DM
practice, which gives a sequence of steps. So, you go through the entire journey from business
understanding to deployment. One more thing I would like to add to what I had said previously
is that even after deployment there is no guarantee that the models you have built or the
solutions you have developed do keep working fine. So, there is no guarantee that even after
deployment, the models which we have deployed will continue to work fine. That is because
the data will always drift. There will be changes in the data because the data is dynamic in
nature. So, what we need to also do after deployment we need to continuously monitor our
data sources and also if there is any variation in the performance of the model. If there are any,
then you repeat the entire cycle again, keep fine-tuning the models or building new models and
ensure that there is the. The models are able to work with the changing nature of the data or
the models are able to accommodate the dynamic nature of data, so you follow some good
practice and also keep a tab on the performance of the models which you have built.
I:
OK, right, Sir. And now since we have already talked about analytics now, we will also talk about
the job industry in an analytics role. So, there are many ways to start a career in the analytics
domain. Which one do you think is best or which way is the best for individuals, like, to fit into
the current AI-ML job market? What would be the best strategy and tools one should be
comfortable with?
VK:
OK, so that is an interesting question. So, looking at the job market, especially the AI-ML
market. The first thing is not to worry about the tools. OK, first get a good understanding of the
fundamentals, right? So if you are planning to become a data scientist then you would need to
have a good understanding of the basic sciences like statistics, probability, applied
mathematics, and then machine learning and deep learning disciplines. Once you have a good
grasp of this then you worry about what kind of tools or technology you can use to build
models, right? So, the first thing is you get a strong hold on the disciplines. Then what you do is
once you have a strong hold on the disciple. Then you start to specialize. OK, there is nothing
like I can become an expert in all the domains and verticals. You must choose a particular
domain or a vertical and then really deep dive into it. So, for example, once you have a good
knowledge of the fundamentals like statistics, probability, machine learning, deep learning, etc.
You can choose a particular domain like healthcare, retail, sports, etc. And then look at business
use cases. Study about that domain. What is the uniqueness of that domain? What kind of
challenges exist in that domain? How can you apply your data science knowledge to solve
business problems in that domain? So, one part is the foundation. The second part is the
domain. You have to carefully choose the domain in which you want to work. Another aspect is
vertical. There are thousands of data science techniques. We will not be able to specialize in
each and everything you need to carefully choose a vertical for yourself. If you have a passion
for images or computer vision, then work on computer vision or image analytics. If you have a
passion for text mining, then work on text analytics. Or if you do not want to work on images or
videos or say text if you are interested in working only with structured data you can specialize
in certain tools and techniques which work with structured data, so you must carefully plan
your journey starting from the foundation, then choosing your domain and then choosing a
vertical. The Tool is not something you need to worry about; it could be Python... It could be R...
It could be some other tool. Learn the concepts and get a strong hold on the concepts. You can
then choose a tool of your choice and then implement these things.
I:
Yes, Sir, and there are a number of resources available on the Internet also so one can move in
that direction also. Now when we are talking about analytics, we always try to associate it with
certain industries. So, let's suppose I'm taking the example of the Ed-tech industry, we have
seen a recent trend where Ed-tech takes the concept of traditional education and gamifies the
learning processes using the latest technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning,
and others. So, what do you think about the AI-powered EdTech sector?
VK:
So EdTech sector in general has democratized education or learning in a big way, so these
things may not have existed maybe a decade earlier. But today you see hundreds of
opportunities for learning, and in them, gamification is definitely a novel concept as far as
learning is concerned. But gamification has been there for many years. Before the advent of
edit texts, gamification has been employed in organizations, so it's a way to keep one interest
going, so it is always easy to start something and then lose interest in the process when you
consider, say, learning so gamification helps with that. Gamification is one way to retain the
learner's interest.
I:
And yes, that's why AI ensures multiple checkpoints to these industries so that they can
evaluate the content and excellent recommendations. So, as we have talked about industry
analytics, now we will come to our college our IIM Kashipur. It also started the MBA and
Business Analytics program in the year 2020. Specifically, which is designed for students'
fraternity who wish to join the big data revolution and emerge as future leaders in the field of
data analytics. So how is this program helpful in this holistic development of students, who
strive to become highly efficient managers with an analytical mindset and an inclination
towards data-driven decision-making?
VK:
So let me start the answer with the background at IIM Kashipur we started the MBA Analytics
program in 2020, but the history of analytics goes back to say 2016. So, we have been running
an analytics specialization or analytics stream, we used to call it ‘analytics stream’ earlier and
we used to expose students to analytics courses that were most sought after in the industry. So,
in that way, we also learned in the process that IIM Kashipur has been equipping itself in this
area for many years.... from 2016 onwards. And in 2020, this culminated in the creation of a
new program name ‘MBA Analytics’. So, how is MBA Analytics distinct from the regular MBA
which is offered at IIM Kashipur? As the name suggests, it's a program with a focus on the
analytics discipline. And how do we prepare the students? So, in the first year, we have two
tracks. One is a management track, and the other is an analytics track. So, students get to do
management courses and students get to do analytics courses as well. So that's a nice blend
that is offered. In the first year. And when you are looking at the analytics track, there are
several courses or subjects which provide a good foundation for the students, right from
statistics, mathematics, programming languages, and applications of analytics. So, students get
prepared for their journey in their second year. And in the second year, they tend to take up
specialized electives, and specialized electives cover the domain as well as the vertical. So, I was
speaking about the domain as well as vertical a few minutes back. So, we need to talk about a
domain, there are many electives such as sports analytics or health analytics, which are offered
as electives. Likewise, when you are looking at the vertical, yes, there are many things you have
analytics focusing on, say social media you have analytics courses specializing on, say...
structured data. You have analytics courses focusing on natural languages. You have courses
related to computer vision and image analytics. And then, there are marketing, finance, supply
chain, and HR analytics. So, the second year is arranged in such a way that it gives a nice blend
of both domains as well as vertical. Brings in both domain and vertical focus in analytics. So that
way the program prepares the students for a long career in the analytics industry.
I:
Thank you so much, Professor. I would like to thank you for giving us the opportunity to interact
with you and learn a lot of useful information.