Review: Analytics at Work

Smarter Decisions, Better Results

By Thomas H. Davenport, Jeanne G. Harris and Robert Morison
Harvard Business Press
$29.95, 188 pages

With every dollar put under a corporate microscope these days, has there ever been a more appropriate time for organizations to make better decisions built on fact-based analytics? In Analytics at Work , Thomas H. Davenport, Jeanne G. Harris and Robert Morison say now is the perfect time to embrace analytics. Following up on the success of their best-selling Competing on Analytics, the authors explain how analytical tools are essential pieces to the decision-making process. It's not just about finding data—actually, most companies are swimming in it. Rather, it's about harnessing and leveraging existing data and discovering the best way to use it to make key business decisions. Harris draws on her experience as a senior executive at Accenture's Institute for High Performance to show how managers can effectively use analytics across the entire organization.