Assignment 1
The article “Diamonds in the Data Mine” specifically discusses the use of data analytics by Gary Loveman in generating data-driven marketing strategies for Harrah's Entertainment to increase its revenues. When other companies concentrated in constructing costly offerings, Harrah's used data to find patterns and solutions to improve each customer's satisfaction. Harrah's Entertainment used database marketing and decision-science based tools to gain competitive advantage. Using the data analytics, they proved one of the fundamentals of the casino business wrong i.e., treating one customer differently than they treat another. Without data analytics, this would not have been possible. Also, linking customer satisfaction with the workers scores. This attempt by Harrah has improved the customer service scores and successively improved customer loyalty. Overall the article discusses the importance of data analytics in a business to generate customer-centered marketing strategies.
The article “Data Scientist: The Sexiest Job of the 21st Century” talks over the gaining importance of a data scientist in an organization. It explains the unique as well as collective skills they hold to perform their tasks. They are a new breed of scarce professionals who are in very high demand for companies wrestling with data. Data scientists are creative in data visualization and making the patterns they find clear and compelling. They are given freedom to work with the rest of the business to find hidden solutions the enormous data. Having many doors opened the pay they get is, of course, huge. A data scientist is like a combination of quantitative analyst and data management expert without strong social skills. Data scientists tend to be more motivated, too when more is expected of them. It’s very hard to find a rare combination of scientific background and computational and