Strategic Analytics: The Insights You Need from Harvard Business Review

by Harvard Business Review, Eric Siegel, Edward L. Glaeser

Is your company ready for the next wave of analytics? Data analytics offer the opportunity to predict the future, use advanced technologies, and gain valuable insights about your business. But unless you're staying on top of the latest developments, your company is wasting that potential--and your competitors will be gaining speed while you fall behind. Strategic The Insights You Need from Harvard Business Review will provide you with today's essential thinking about what data analytics are capable of, what critical talents your company needs to reap their benefits, and how to adopt analytics throughout your organization--before it's too late. Business is changing. Will you adapt or be left behind?
Get up to speed and deepen your understanding of the topics that are shaping your company's future with the Insights You Need from Harvard Business Review series. Featuring HBR's smartest thinking on fast-moving issues--blockchain, cybersecurity, AI, and more--each book provides the foundational introduction and practical case studies your organization needs to compete today and collects the best research, interviews, and analysis to get it ready for tomorrow. You can't afford to ignore how these issues will transform the landscape of business and society. The Insights You Need series will help you grasp these critical ideas--and prepare you and your company for the future.

Genres: Business, Audiobook, Nonfiction

192 pages, Paperback

First published April 21, 2020

Reviews

[Sara (onourshelves) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was expected more focus on data literacy --genuine insights on how to become data literate yourself, as well as encourage the rest of your team to also become data literate. The focus instead was more on how to put together and run a team in a data heavy and likely large organization, so it was less relevant in terms of the information I was reading for. Some points I did appreciate were:
-you need data people, but you also need people who can communicate that data
-if it's not useful, whats the point?
-It's important to have a little bit of overlap of job duties on a team so people are able to work together better

Overall, it was a fine book with a few insights, but its not as broadly relevant as I would have liked.

[Michelle Leung · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hmm. An ok introduction but I thought it would have more information on how to become a better data analyst. It mainly focused on how to shift your organization/ business thinking to include more insights gleaned from data, and why it’s useful in business decisions and strategy (I mean , of course ?!?!)

[Aaron · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh

[Donn Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like HBR articles, it felt a little theoretical at times, but a number of the chapters/articles were surprisingly actionable or applicable to someone lower down the chain of command (like me).

There were a few standout articles. One in particular "earned" a star in my review by itself (this would have been a 3-star book otherwise): Cassie Kozyrkov's "What Great Data Analysts Do". It made me think about data analysts in a completely different way (as opposed to data scientists or data engineers or statisticians -- in essence it's that data analysts focus on speed, figuring out what questions to answer, while many other more technical data folks focus on depth).

I'd suggest if you can to borrow this book from the library, tackle the articles that interest you, and leave the rest.

[Carlos Miguel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Actual Rating: 3.5/5.0

This is a very interesting book, especially for people who don't know much about the data world. I had the impression initially that the focus would be on data analysts and alike, but it was on how to manage a company based on data. Not necessarily a bad thing, just not what I would have preferred for myself.

This is my second book from HBR Insights Series, and even though I enjoyed more the book on Artificial Intelligence, I would highly recommend this series to have different perspectives on the challenges and opportunities in the business world while in a very clear and concise manner. Seriously, every talk has takeaways at the end which are always on point.

[Avinash · Rating 4 out of 5]

Data collection (quality of data and the amount of it is important)
feel for data , what first then why, visualization story telling (structured data, pics , unstructured data)
Analyist(what) -> statistician (why) -> AI/ML models


Ask right questions, rapid prototyping by setting deadlines like 3 months if there is no value discard the moment you realize the same.

focus on low effort n high value efforts first,
focus on high impact work.

Avoid silos , integrate the team , bring in domain experts from start to finish

[Arun Narayanaswamy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very generic and basic content on Ai and analytics. Far from what I would expect hbr to cover. It’s almost like a dummy’s guide to analytics.
There are some examples on the usage of ai in a specific domain, but that does not even scratch the surface of it.
One area covered was on employee data vs customer data, which gave a different perspective on how data is unused or can be misused. Apart from this nothing fancy in this book.

[Rukhsar (rukhsandbooks) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm a huge fan of HBR publications. The content is bitesize, digestable, and there is always current content available.

Many of our workplaces are "data" driven. But is everyone using and interpreting that data correctly? Is data a scape goat? What's the value of data and how do you use it to truly form strategies or move your strategy forward? If you've had any of these thoughts or discussions with the people around you, I suggest picking up this quick read.

[Christina Turner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very clear and direct, a great primer for those who want an overview, and encouragement that data is a tool, and shouldn't replace your team. If anything, you need to affirm your team's abilities and instincts as they learn to incorporate and utilize a new tool in their arsenal. It's like a sci-fi Desk Set.

[Darya · Rating 5 out of 5]

The business who has data has the power to grow. It maybe the business who knows how to make correct strategic decisions based on the data they own can grow? Decisions are made by humans and humans need to understand and analyze data with the strategic approach. This book is simple great to explain how to approach data analysis and make strategic business decisions.

[Avi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Insightful and Practical

If you are into data analytics, there are things you keep thinking about like types of data, skill sets requires by the team, relevance of an initiative, etc.

This book covers all those thoughts and gives useful models to understand their interactions and relevance in a consice manner.

A highly suggested read for all data analysts and managers.

[Psyckers · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great book to get you into the thinking of using data to form your strategic plan.
Some brilliant insights and examples of how they are applied are found in this book.
As well as looking at the analysis of data and interpret it to the right audience is key, one must keep in mind that the main currency in strategy is 'Trust'.

[Samiul Karim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very comprehensive intro to analytics for non technical managers, strategists, leaders, and entry level individual contributors. It starts out with a good primer for set expectations before diving into tools and best practices.

It has some good case studies as most HBR books but the examples are varied enough to cover a wide set of industries.

[Sudipt Roy · Rating 3 out of 5]

A reasonably good bird's eye view of the Analytics landscape. Use cases can help trigger the thought process. A easy-to-read book printed in triple-line spacing (or thereabout) that will not take too much time to go from cover-to-cover, if someone is motivated enough.

[Sophie · Rating 2 out of 5]

It’s ok. Some good chapters but generally felt unstructured and flicking all over different areas of analytics. Also, more focussed on machine learning than analysis which wasn’t what I wanted from the book

[Dave Irwin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this to be a very broad overview of strategic data analysis that can be used by businesses to better improve their decisions, processes and operations. Worth a read if you are starting your data learning journey.

[Joe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good high level information and concepts covering many topics. Not the book that goes into detail on analytics.

[Dr. Tathagat Varma · Rating 2 out of 5]

A good lightweight introduction to the contemporary ideas and issues in the field of analytics.

[Parth Sarthi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Insightful, lucid and inspiring!

[Iryna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Obviously focused on executives. A bit too high-level in some ways but provides a couple of good examples and case studies.