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Jim Ericson, Information Management Blogs, March 9, 2010
I had a good chat today with Tom Davenport, the co-author (with Jeanne Harris) of Competing on Analytics, who's out with a new book. The follow-up, Analytics at Work (Harvard Business Press), adds researcher Robert Morison to the byline, and a more pragmatic approach to gaining analytic maturity.
I first met and interviewed Tom more than four years ago, and we actually scooped HBR with a column that previewed his seminal byline on competing with analytics. That article was a stake in the ground to say that analytics would be the new competitive edge for successful businesses.
But about that first book, how did it hold up over time? Many speaking engagements later, Davenport sounded just a bit deflated at the overall progress, but not very much surprised.
"I'm not sure what fraction of organizations were ever really that interested in competing on their analytic capabilities," he told me. "Most senior management teams just aren't comfortable enough with that as a strategic objective."
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