Quantitative Methods in Decsion Making Essay

Decision making and communication are at the center of business success and efficient business analytics would only be effective through the use of proper information systems and that are up to date with current trends as well as optimizing on the available channels.

The four pillars of analytics competition are (1) Support of a strategic, distinctive capability, (2) an enterprise-level approach to and management of analytics, (3) Senior management commitment, and (4) Large-scale ambition (Davenport & Harris, 2007).

The data analytic process is one in which a large amount of information is collected using software specifically geared towards collecting, identifying and storing information for use by the company. The information is gleaned from different forums, with social media being the most rich and useful. The information is then quickly sorted and organized for use by the collecting agency (Turban, Volonino, Wood, & Sipior, 2002, p. 6). The use of data analytics really took flight in 2010 when different companies offered software that enabled a company to implement their own data analytics. This led to better marketing campaigns, improved customer relations and it gave companies using the software a bigger advantage over their competitors (Savitz, 2012).

In order to be an effective analytical competitor, Davenport and Harris (2007) assert that firms must meet certain prerequisites. Those prerequisites are at least a moderate amount of quality data about the type of business that analytics will support, hardware and software, the commitment of managers to develop analytics, and executive sponsorship (Davenport and Harris, 2007, p.16). Analytics is about extrapolating new information and

How to Compete on Analytics    Thomas Davenport describes the prerequisites and the five stages of analytic  competitiveness    By Alison Bolen     Thomas Davenport's article "Competing on Analytics" was the best‐selling Harvard  Business Review reprint in 2006. To write it, Davenport,The President's Distinguished  Professor in Management and Information Technology at Babson College, studied the  characteristics of more than 50 leading organizations that have made a commitment to  quantitative, fact‐based analysis.    Why is the January 2006 Harvard Business Review article so popular? We recently asked  the author and educator that question and discussed further insights from his research  that will be detailed in his new book, Competing

In today’s companies, the analytics software plays the important role and guides the future activities to a great extent.

Forecasting analytics will enable SYSCO to make appropriate upfront decisions and monitor customers as well as the industry. Extraction and data mining are also useful tools that will positively affect SYSCO’s decision-making process. Lastly, consulting support and employees’ training will facilitate the implementation of the new software in the company. For all these reasons, the use of BI at SYSCO can create a competitive advantage of the company in the industry. However, this competitive advantage depends on the competition – do the competitors use a similar software or by chance the same and do they already have a strong position in the market? Outperforming for example “U.S Food Service”, SYSCO’s main competitor, might be arduous if that company relies on a similar software and already has an eminent role in the

Throughout my years of English class, essay writing has always been one of my weakest points. Putting my thoughts onto a piece of paper is easy, but it is the process of reforming my thoughts and conveying them properly that is difficult to do. The most difficult type of essay for me is argumentative. I find good quotes that are relative to the topic and incorporate them into my essay well. However, when writing, analysis and syntax is where I am the most lacking.

The quantitative approach to research has numerous principles that make it unique compared to other approaches. In this paper, I will break down many of the

• The quantitative system has been based in a positivist structure and dismisses the distinct and aggregative predispositions of the philosophers and also the issues (Onwuegbuzie and Leech, 2005).

In Competing on Analytics by Thomas Davenport and Jeanne Harris, the pillars of analytic completion are stated as: “(1) analytics supported a strategic, distinctive capability; (2) the approach to and management of analytics was enterprise-wide; (3) senior management was committed to the use of analytics; and (4) the company made a significant strategic bet on analytics-based competition” (Davenport & Harris, 2007, pp. 511-512) . This section will describe Aramark’s position within these pillars.

Businesses today have access to significantly more data than any other time in history; however, most businesses are not capturing or using the data effectively. A report by the Aberdeen Group, “The Executive’s Guide to Effective Analytics,” indicates that “44 percent of executives are dissatisfied with the analytic capabilities available to them today, and that they often make critical decisions based on inaccurate or inadequate data” (Forbes, 2014). Luckily, CEO’s are beginning to recognize the need for analytics and more and more businesses are making a shift towards a data-driven business culture.

In an uber globalized market of today, companies are faced with challenges in each and every step of their business. Our analytics and research services are geared towards giving those companies that extra edge over the competition. We process and analyze terabytes of data and break down all the fuzz and chatter around it to give our customers meaningful insights about their competition and the market they are engaged in.

“Competing on Analytics” defines an analytical competitor “as an organization that uses analytics extensively and systematically to outthink and out execute the competition.”(1) Business analytics is a new way for companies to separate themselves from their competitors. I recently completed an internship at the firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and will work there full-time upon completion of this program. PwC uses analytics to help solve complex business issues and to identify opportunities across different industries. PwC is the largest professional service company in the world and is part of the Big Four accounting firms. PwC operates in over 157 countries with more than 750 offices throughout the world.(2) PwC is structured into three service lines, which are Assurance, Advisory and Tax. The assurance practice audits almost 30% of the global fortune 500 companies.(2) The advisory practice is mainly consulting activities that cover strategy, cyber security and privacy, human resources, deals and forensics. (2) These three practices generated $35.4 billion in revenue in 2015. (2)

Quantitative research involves the usage of statistical techniques for analysis that, test a theory based on the enquiry of an identified problem. It can mostly be measured in numbers and believes in generalizing its result, i.e. extrapolating. Its main goal is to determine whether the predictive generalizations, hold true or not. Quantitative research also aims at predicting, explaining and understanding some phenomena, by focusing on a cause and effect relationship between the variables involved in the research. It also follows the positivistic paradigm developed in the mid-nineteenth century, which aimed at using the natural sciences as a way of generating knowledge in the social sciences research.