The 2011 Top 25 Consultants: Fred Balboni

Watson had access to more than 200 million pages of content consuming four terabytes of disk storage. "The question I ask companies is how many different sources of information do you use in your decision making process?" Balboni says. "The biggest issue is the complexity of business. Clients know the information is there, but they don't know how to make use out of it."

But IBM does. The firm recently helped the Memphis Police Department reduce serious crime more than 30 percent, while Avis Europe was able to mine the interest of its 900,000 customers (and predict their behavior patterns) to increase opportunities for half the marketing spend. "That's the next wave—the ability to use the information to predict outcomes," he says.

Balboni's enthusiasm around the power of analytics is understandable. The practice he leads launched in April 2009 with 4,000 consultants. Today it's over 8,000. "Doubling a business from a starting point of 4,000 is incredible, and I think that speaks to our ability to deliver client value. That's why analytics was so obvious; it's become so powerful."

So powerful, in fact, that Balboni says he now believes analytics could even be bigger than the ERP wave. "We always knew that it would be big, but the second we started to see the market respond to it we poured more resources into it." Balboni says he suspects the practice can grow at 9 percent annually until at least 2015.

"I represent the collective innovation and energy of some of the most talented consultants and scientists that exist," Balboni says. "It's humbling to receive this award, but it would not be possible without the amazing team we have assembled at IBM."

—J.K.