Strategic Analytics

With the recent growth in availability of data and inexpensive analytical tools, forward-thinking enterprises can mine the potential of these powerful methods for themselves. Here is what you need to know to get started.

Mar 27, 2013

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Strategic Analytics refers to detailed, data-driven, analyses supporting outcomes of strategic importance for a company. We can distinguish two types of strategic analysis: the special, one-off, analyses required for major decisions (for example, corporate alliances, market expansions, new product lines, major acquisitions); and "automated" analyses for multiple, repeated decisions such as those in the revenue management setting. There is nothing really new in either case. What's new is that there are now amounts of data available for both types of strategic decision that are unprecedented, both in quantity and timeliness. Furthermore, widely available online databases allow large or small enterprises to quickly gather information about their competitive environments. Such data as population demographics, geographic distributions and distances, trends, and economic factors that were costly and difficult to assemble just a few years ago are now available in a matter of minutes. This discussion paper offers a series of questions and answers at the heart of strategic analytics.