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What I'm Reading Now


"Competing on Analytics; The New Science Of Winning." by Thomas Davenport and Jeanne Harris. I was cruising through an airport bookstore last weekend, picked up the book and read the following in Gary Loveman's Foreword:

"...analytic management is impeded by common organizational pathologies:
  • "A powerful conventional wisdom, often associated with powerful people, is allowed to sustain itself absent critical testing.
  • "Decision making, especially at high levels, not only fails to demand rigor and dispassionate analysis, but often champions the opposite as the scarce talent that (separates) CEOs and visionaries from otherwise smart but less inspired people.
  • "The organization lacks people who get up in the morning eager to do analytic empirical work and are really good at it. Instead, analytic work is seen as the last resort, undertaken by those unfamiliar with proper methods. And,
  • "People tend to win over ideas rather than the reverse."
Points #1 and #4 were enough to sell me. I always appreciate new tools for seeing things a little differently than the next strategy geek...or CEO. Amazon.com's reviews are mixed, but I could use a stats refresher and it's better than dusting off my textbook.


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