Customer Reviews: Read 49 more reviews...
 Five stars but... for the right audience! August 10, 2008
I was excited by the title, some of the reviews and rushed to buy this. Read it quite fast and got little disappointed. Probably the correct title could be ''Advocacy for Competing on Analytics''. To be clear, the book is very good if you are: a student, a junior project manager, a junior consultant, a manager looking for Business Intelligence ideas, an expert looking for tools to sell analytics, or Business Intelligence, to your top managers.
If you are experienced in using analytics, design and use data collection tools, or using Business Intelligence, the book might bring you little value. I was constantly reading it and looking forward for the real meat, but it didn't really appeared. I certainly will keep it to use as a reference in the future, but still looking for books to provide deeper insights on the subject.
 Great Concept - Too Long August 7, 2008
This book could be about half as long and just as effective. After you get through the first few chapters you're pretty much rehashing the same things, but overally the book makes good points.
A Panacea for Information Overload August 4, 2008
Davenport and Harris have brought a new thinking in business science. They have expanded on CRM also.
In his book, White Nose, Don DeLillo asks "What good is knowledge if it just floats in the air? It goes from computer to computer, but nobody actually knows anything?" Now, with Competing on Analytics, business leaders will know what to do with the huge information they gather, and yet, do nothing with; and infact, too much information which sometimes becomes counterprodustive.
The winning strategies for top businesses must truly be guided by a well-instituted, abundantly erudite and highly analytical processes. Instead of looking backward at their business performances and making retrospective adjustments, the winning businesses must be the ones that have systems to make accurate forecasts of future performance (financial and nonfinancial) so they can react in advance of situations. Rather than throwing money, time and effort at business problems or mass marketing, they'll seek to optimize their use of capital using foreknowledge and exactitude. The days of using gut feel or intuition for strategic calculations are over. (Nwankama W Nwankama, Intelligence Analyst).
 Very disappointing July 24, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
I was intrigued by the book's description and I've found other HBS Press books very useful. However, after the foreward by Gary Loveman, the CEO of Harrah's, the book deteriorates into a 186-page argument for the use of analytics in business. The problem with that is I don't need convincing. I'm already interested in using analytics to improve my business - that's why I bought this book! There was very little actionable information presented. If I hadn't been reading this book for a grad school class, I never would have finished it.
 For very high level managers who have no idea of CRM nor analytics June 2, 2008
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
I bet if the term "analytics" is replaced by "CRM" throughout this book, it will remain intact as it is. It gives the high level management the basics of CRM/analytics, and the need to commit seriously company wide, especially their own time and career. However, little is offered on the execution, that the employment of external consultants like the authors is the legitimate way out. In short, if you know not CRM/analytics, this is marginally readable and helpful. If you already have one or more book else on CRM/analytics, please give this a pass.
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