Business analytics is an emerging area in modern business decision-making, gaining interest and popularity. This book discusses the models based on fact-based data to measure past business performance in order to guide organizations in visualizing and predicting future business performance and outcomes. Bringing terms, tools, and methods of analytics together, a comprehensive overview of analytics is given with an emphasis on predictive analytics. The book provides an introduction to and types of business analytics, the importance of analytics, and business intelligence. It also discusses the most widely used predictive models, including regression analysis, forecasting, data mining, and an introduction to recent applications of predictive analytics - machine learning, neural networks, and artificial intelligence. The current state, job outlook, and certifications in analytics are also examined. This chapter offers an overview of the text as a whole, describing business analytics and how it relates to business intelligence and statistical analysis. Data analytics, its applications, and business analytics models are all reviewed as are artificial intelligence, machine learning, and deep learning. Business analytics can be divided into descriptive analytics, predictive analytics, prescriptive analytics, and advanced analytics models. This book focuses on predictive analytics, the techniques of which use mostly statistical models and algorithms to predict future business trends. The ultimate goal of business analytics is to improve business performance by making data-driven decisions through helping businesses increase revenues and profitability, improve operational efficiency, optimize marketing campaigns and respond quickly changing market trends, improve customer service efforts, address the needs and requirements of customers, gain a competitive edge over the competition, and increase market share.
ZURICH (SWITZERLAND), MAY 2018 - Cristian Grossmann arrived early in the office that day. It had not been a breeze for Beekeeper to reach its current situation: a quickly expanding company with over 130 employees across the world, with a plethora of large clients. It was not so long ago that he had started a side-project with a university friend to develop an anonymous flirting platform for students. Several pivots later, the project had started getting a lot of traction and disrupting the hospitality industry's way of working. The last 12 months had been much more turbulent than expected, and Grossmann was mulling over how the next 12 months would look like. It was crucial for Beekeeper to continue growing, yet there were more and more indications of the organization's rapid growth leading to overwhelming complexity. So how could Grossmann steer the company towards even more growth while staying agile and exciting?
Basler is one of those lesser-known midsize companies (the so-called hidden champions), which, despite their moderate scale of operation, enjoy worldwide leadership in several niche markets. Basler primarily comprises two business segments: one, quality control systems for industrial goods production; and, two, cameras for diverse industries. The 2008/2009 global financial crisis, however, spelled trouble for Basler. With the company's very survival at stake, Basler's CEO had to make a strategic decision, namely, cut back on critical resources (human, financial, and material); this would include slashing as many as 50 jobs, which represented a fifth of its workforce. While so doing, some key questions remained unanswered in his mind: • In which of the company's two business segments should he reduce resources and cut those 50 jobs? • At the same time, regardless of the financial crisis, in which area, if any, should he consider investing resources in order to drive the company's growth in the next 5- 10 years? The case study provides the student with the crucial inputs required to answer the above questions convincingly. To arrive at an optimal solution, the student would need to think through the various options before the CEO during one of the worst financial crises in global history and weigh up their pros and cons.
In 2019, the general manager of the Xiamen branch of Eastern Lotus Bank was facing difficulties overcoming customer-introduced variability, which significantly influenced the efficiency of the bank’s front-office service. She needed to analyze and summarize the different types of customer-introduced variability. Then she had to identify potential strategies that would enable the bank to accommodate this customer-introduced variability while maintaining a high-quality customer service experience. She also needed to decide how to allocate and arrange the limited human resources at the bank efficiently and effectively. To make these decisions, she had to systematically evaluate the efficiency and effectiveness of the front office under both pooled- and separated-resource allocation scenarios. For instance, how long did customers have to wait for services in each different resource allocation scenario? Moreover, how well were the limited human resources (staff) utilized under each scenario?
In March 2016, the chief executive officer (CEO) of ICICI Bank Ltd. (ICICI), one of the largest private sector banks in India, was accused of non-disclosure and exploitation of conflict of interest by an investor. The CEO, who had successfully led the bank since 2009, had been featured in two Forbes lists of the most powerful women in 2017. Initially, the ICICI board of directors supported the CEO for two years, until March 2018, when Indian regulatory agencies including the Central Bureau of Investigation opened investigations. In January 2019, following the findings of an internal investigation report by ICICI, the newly appointed chairman of the ICICI board terminated the CEO over non-disclosure of conflict of interest. The board chairman also demanded the return of all bonuses and stock options received by the CEO since her appointment in 2009. Was the ICICI board chairman right to take strict action against the CEO for non-disclosure of conflict of interest? What could he do to improve governance practices at ICICI?
Market lore recounts a host of fabled asset price bubbles: the Dutch tulip bubble of the 1630s, the South Sea and Mississippi bubbles of 1720, the dot-com bubble of the late 1990s, and the global real estate bubble of the mid-2000s. One survey reported the occurrence of some 60 bubbles since the 17th century. Despite their apparent prevalence, asset price bubbles are a challenging theoretical and empirical concept. The aims of this note are to: explore the concept of an asset price bubble; consider some tell-tale signs of a bubble from the standpoints of economic theory, empirical research, and market lore; survey evidence about the existence of bubbles; summarize theories about the causes of bubbles-especially the apparent irrationality of bubbles and the behavior of rational sophisticated investors in buying into them; and finally, highlight some of the regulatory dilemmas that bubbles present. Although the existence of the occasional asset price bubble may seem obvious to the casual observer, this note explains why bubbles are hard to identify and challenging to trade upon.
Debates on issues about the economy, growth, inequality, fiscal responsibility, and financial crises frequently reduce to debates about money. Moreover, debates about money often reduce to the soundness of money, meaning the ability of a unit of currency to retain its value. Eventually, discussions about soundness touch on the classic era of the gold standard. The aims of this note are to (1) describe the mechanism of the international monetary system known as the gold standard during the time that it had the greatest influence on the global economy; (2) place the gold standard in context with other systems that preceded and followed it; and (3) dispel some enduring misconceptions.
In 2018, Lindsay Kaplan is preparing to meet with Carolyn Childers about the possibility of co-founding Chief, a New York-based peer network for women executives. Kaplan is currently the vice president of communications and brand engagement at a successful mattress company, and she is happy in her current role. However, she is excited by Childers's vision for a community of women executives and believes she could bring valuable expertise as Chief builds its brand experience. Should Kaplan join Chief as a co-founder? What do they need to discuss before teaming up?
Chief is a New York-based peer network that provides mentorship, support, networking opportunities, and a sense of community to women executives. Co-founders Carolyn Childers and Lindsay Kaplan launched the company in January 2019, and just two months later, Chief has 400 members and a growing waiting list. Now, Childers and Kaplan must determine how aggressively to scale Chief's model to other cities. How much money should they raise in Chief's Series A, and when? Which cities should they expand to first? What are the potential risks of moving too fast, and how can they best mitigate them? For more background on Childers and Kaplan's decision to found Chief, please see "Chief: Role for Carolyn Childers" (HBS No. 920-019) and "Chief: Role for Lindsay Kaplan" (HBS No. 920-020).
For more than two decades, scientific advances have been driving profound changes in drug discovery and the drug industry itself. This case provides an overview and description of these technical and scientific advances. Written for the nonscientific reader, it may be used as companion reading for other case materials that require basic knowledge of the tools, techniques, and approaches used in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries.
This was largely achieved through alliances and collaborations with public and private organizations. The case ends when Ascardio's Administrative Technical Council was discussing the organization's options to face the progressive loss of support from key actors, in an increasing complicated economic and political environment. On one hand, Ascardio had the option of modifying its fee system. Crosssubsidies were becoming increasingly difficult to manage and the remuneration of residents required urgent updating. Also, public and private contributions to patients in need of financial support to access Ascardio's cardiological services were declining. On the other hand, Ascardio had the option to use the social capital of Dr. Finizola and his family, as well as the one accumulated by Ascardio, to launch an aggressive fundraising campaign, and seek contributions in volunteering hours from the citizens of the region-well known for the mutual trust and solidarity of its citizens and organizations. Having analyzed both options, students will decide if Ascardio: 1) Should sacrifice universality to ensure financial sustainability and market positioning, while running the risk of losing legitimacy among its stakeholders. 2) Should seek alternatives for mobilizing the region's civil society and different forms of volunteering to secure an inclusive health service, available for all public regardless of their ability to pay, but risking to lose quality of service.
MILAN (ITALY), SEPTEMBER 2018. The Strategic Lab at De Agostini, part strategic think-tank and part assessment tool for the next-generation talent of the Drago-Boroli family, owners of De Agostini, was brainstorming the future direction of the diversified, family-owned group. After almost 100 years in the publishing and printing business, the third-generation family leader Marco Drago set the family firm on a radical new course, which included globalization and diversification across media and communication, gaming, and financial services to create a powerhouse, with entities listed on three different stock exchanges. However, diversification did not come without its challenges. Could portfolio repurposing also serve to anchor the family's identity? Were family values properly embedded in the current structures and investments? Should the holding structure be perennialized or be treated as a temporary arrangement until the next major liquidity event, when assets would again be refocused on a single industry? Did the legacy publishing business still serve a purpose or should it be disposed of? Emotional ties ran deep, but so did the losses... and those were not sustainable. Could it be turned around or pivoted to capture the latest digitalization wave?