Behind Every Good Decision: How Anyone Can Use Business Analytics to Turn Data Into Profitable Insight

There is a costly misconception in business today - that the only data that matters is BIG data, and that complex tools and data scientists are required to extract any practical information. Nothing could be further from the truth. In Behind Every Good Decision, authors and analytics experts Piyanka Jain and Puneet Sharma demonstrate how professionals at any level can take the information at their disposal and leverage it to make better decisions. The authors' streamlined frame work demystifies the process of business analytics and helps anyone move from data to decisions in just five steps...using only Excel as a tool. Readers will learn how to: clarify the business question; lay out a hypothesis - driven plan; pull relevant data; convert it to insights; make decisions that make an impact. Packed with examples and exercises, this refreshingly accessible book explains the four fundamental analytic techniques that can help solve a surprising 80 per cent of all business problems. Business analytics isn't rocket science - it's a simple problem-solving tool that can help companies increase revenue, decrease costs, improve products, and delight customers. And who doesn't want to do that?

About the Authors

Piyanka Jain is President and CEO of Aryng, a management consulting company focused on analytics for business impact. As a highly regarded industry thought leader in analytics, she has been a keynote speaker at business and analytics conferences, including the American Marketing Association, Predictive Analytics World, GigaOm, and the Google Analytics User Conference. She speaks about data-driven decision making to gain competitive advantage. In 15 years as an analytics leader, she has had a more than $150 million demonstrated impact on business. As a gifted problem solver, she seeks out patterns and insights to drive change in her client’s organizations and impact top levers of business. She considers customer satisfaction, empowerment, and positive engagement as the highest rewards, and dollar impact as a natural consequence of it.

She has two masters degrees; her theses focused on applied mathematics and statistics.

Puneet Sharma is Vice President of Analytics, Growth Hacking and User Research at Move Inc. He is passionate about leveraging analytics and consumer insights for driving significant business impact.

He is a creative, awards-winning senior leader with a 15-year track record of spearheading highly effective marketing and product strategy initiatives in financial services and Internet companies. His expertise lies in driving strategy through consumer insights and deep analytics and by providing actionable recommendations for effective change execution.

After completing his MBA from University of Maryland, Puneet held marketing, product, and analytics leadership roles in Fortune 500 companies, such as PayPal, Capital One, and HSBC, where he has led consumer-based retail businesses to capture lucrative and previously unclaimed opportunities.