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data analysis

Cost Analysis: 5 Areas That May Improve Your Bottom Line

Submitted by Jonathon Neil on Thu, 01/10/2013 - 18:34

If you are an owner of an SMB then you probably have a good understanding of your expenses. But have you taken a deep dive into your expense to find opportunities to lower costs and improve profitability? Analyzing your expenses is a great exercise that can uncover insights about your business’ cost structure. Here are 5 areas that may be prime for a more thorough cost analysis.

An Important Issue For Data-Driven Organizations

Submitted by Jonathon Neil on Tue, 12/11/2012 - 18:23

In case you are not aware, Congress in recent months has been turning up the heat on what it calls “data brokers”, or companies that aggregate, analyze and sell data. In July, Congress sent letters to 9 large firms, including credit agencies Experian and Equifax and Intelius.

Too “Logit” To Quit: 5 Ideas For Using Logistic Regression In Your Business

Submitted by Jonathon Neil on Sat, 12/01/2012 - 18:53

Predicting behavior is the “white whale” of every business leader responsible for business development and customer acquisition. The field of data analysis offers numerous techniques and methods to help business leaders in these efforts, yet for those without the experience and/or resources this can be a daunting task. In this article I want to discuss one technique that can support the efforts of any business, small and large: logistic regression.

Big Data Leads to a Big Win in a Big Election

Submitted by Jonathon Neil on Tue, 11/13/2012 - 19:47

I am not writing this as a political statement and will refrain from delving into a discussion of politics and the political landscape that has unfolded since last week’s Presidential election. Instead, I wanted to focus on some of the comments by major players from both sides in the days following election night.

Visuals Matter (And Quad Charts Can Be Your Best Friend)

Submitted by Jonathon Neil on Wed, 10/31/2012 - 15:11

Reports should help the readers understand the "what" and the "why", and I believe strongly that proper visuals can enhance a report/analysis/presentation/etc.Let’s look at an example. Below is a table showing 2012 and 2011 unit sales.

Being Analytically Mature

Submitted by Jonathon Neil on Wed, 10/17/2012 - 15:00

Data are everywhere. Whether you are a data analyst consultant, a business owner, marketing director, consumer, or parent, there is no professional or personal role that does not deal with data. It may not require the use of numbers or math, but everyone encounters facts and information to make decisions based on their process of reasoning. Being analytically mature does not mean you are merely awesome with numbers and calculations. It's a mindset, a philosophy, a culture.

Do Your Periodic Reports Answer ‘Why’, Or Just ‘What’?

Submitted by Jonathon Neil on Wed, 10/10/2012 - 15:14

Business leaders may receive dozens of regular periodic reports each day/week/month/quarter. Whether it is financial, marketing, merchandising, operations or any other activity, reports are relied upon to help leaders understand what is going on in their business. But often I find that these periodic reports fail to provide the information and context that leaders really need to make decisions. They answer the question of what happened, but they tend to ignore the equally important question of why did it happen. You may see that revenues are down. Okay…but why?

A Predictive Model For Week 5 College Football Pickems

Submitted by Jonathon Neil on Thu, 09/27/2012 - 16:39

The saga continues with my College Football pick ems. With week 4 in the books and week 5 approaching I have improved from dead last to fifth in the rankings over the past 2 weeks. A couple of weeks ago in an attempt to climb out of the cellar I conducted a quick exploratory analysis and used some probabilities to make predictions, resulting in correctly picking 55% of the games in week 3.

Your gut says this but your data show that

Submitted by Jonathon Neil on Wed, 09/26/2012 - 15:00

Should you use data or your gut feeling in making a business decision? This can be tough when faced with conflicting stances and it is something that even I encounter as a data analysis advocate. What do I think? Well I will frame my response around an experience that I had.

Update: College Football Pickems Decision Model

Submitted by Jonathon Neil on Sat, 09/22/2012 - 10:00

In a post last week I discussed my problem with picking college football games against the spread. After stating the problem (I was dead last in the standings) I walked through a very basic exploratory and statistical analysis by using probabilities from the first 2 weeks to develop a decision-making model for selecting my picks. And the results were...

Surprisingly good

As a recap, here is the model:

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