Over the last 15 to 20 years, companies have bought into the notion that they could use computing power, data and analytics to discern more about their customers, operational efficiencies and the markets. But, as they say, numbers don’t always tell the story.
Jeffrey T. Prince, professor and chairperson of business economics and public policy at Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business, says reasoning and logic are often left out of the equation.
“And that really should be the foundation for all of this,” said Prince, author of the new book, “Predictive Analytics for Business Strategy: Reason From Data to Actionable Knowledge,” published by McGraw-Hill.
He noted that predictive analytics frequently is used to track consumer patterns and then evaluate data to determine future consumer behavior. “That’s the creepy part of analytics, where we can see what you’re up to and make accurate predictions about what’s going on or what you’ll do,” he said.
It’s what Prince calls “passive prediction.”