Foreword

I met Dr. Southekal through Mario Faria, who leads Gartner’s program for Chief Data Officers. Ours are unprecedented times for the application of science to advancing the practice of business, and Data and Analytics are at the forefront of this transformation, neigh, revolution. Starting my career as an entrepreneur and company founder, later a management consultant, and now a corporate executive, I was delighted to have been introduced to Dr. Southekal and his project, as it provided an enjoyable retrospective on some memorable projects.

The book you are holding in your hands contains wisdom and advice that any analytics practitioner would benefit from. For the neophyte, it will serve as a source of ideas on how to progress their mastery of the métier, and for the experienced practitioner, it is a good reminder of solid practices that withstand the test of time. In the paragraphs below, I share how the best-practices Dr. Southekal exposes in this volume played out in some projects from the past (these appear in quotation marks).

I have personally deployed many, if not all, the best-practices eloquently elucidated by Dr. Southekal. When I served as Chief of Analytics for General Motors’ Global Connected Consumer Experience Division (Onstar), we developed and deployed General Motors’ first Big Data Customer Analytics Data Set and used it to create personalized incentives with advanced analytics models. This project was complex and required significant investment and attention, ultimately affecting dealership operations. We had to, as Dr. Southekal puts it, “Tie stakeholders’ goals to questions & KPIs.” To make this system sustainable, we had to “Support analytics with data governance” and extensively “Implement insights with data storytelling and change management.”

At Ford, I had the privilege to “Build the high performing team for analytics.” In the Information Management and Analytics area, we went from two people in 2005 to over a hundred in 2014. We pioneered data governance at Ford. Building a team that is willing to constructively disrupt with data and analytics is important for the success of any analytics function. At Ford, I also had the opportunity to establish “Make data compliance an integral part of analytics.” That is an arduous task, and possible only when the approach is “Source data strategically.” Our work at Ford resulted in a monetization value of close to $2 billion and received praise in Sloan Management Review.

At Acorns, a millennial-oriented Fintech Startup, I had the opportunity to mentor the team to create a highly personalized user experience using Data and Advanced Analytics. This was an excellent example of “Leverage embedded analytics and data products for data monetization” and refining the models and approach with “Use continuous refinement and validation as the mainstay of advanced analytics.”

Last by not least, as a Data and Analytics leader, you, the reader, are an educator and advocate. Data literacy and showing that you understand the data in the business context are most important to gain the confidence of your business and to be able to bridge the gap between those who understand the business and those facile with Data and Analytics methods. This is the focus of the practices “Focus on descriptive analytics for data literacy” and “Understand the data from the analytics point-of-view.”

In summary, I hope you enjoy this volume and the insights so diligently collected by Dr. Southekal. As described above, they all have a place in “the real world.”

Gahl Berkooz, Ph.D.

Vice President of Data, Analytics, and Monetization, ZF Group

Greater Detroit Area, MI, United States