Once upon a time: The toy industry has invited me to the world‘s largest toy fair, which took place recently in the city of Nuremberg. With close to 3,000 exhibitors the toy fair is bigger than ever before. Success is the theme of the event, and most German retailers cannot complain with consecutive
Insurance can be a complex business, so filing an insurance claim can be daunting task for many small businesses. When an incident does occur, be it property damage, business interruption, professional indemnity or public liability among the myriad of other potential causes of loss, it is typically a period of
For many, the contents of the Financial Times or Wall Street Journal are a bit like maps that guide them into battle against their competitors each day. Information on stocks and shares, mergers and acquisitions, and even speculation on how things might pan out in the future can all be
Every day there are news stories of fraud perpetrated against federal government programs. Topping the list are Medicaid and Medicare schemes which costs taxpayers an estimated $100 billion a year. Fraud also is rampant in other important federal programs, including unemployment and disability benefits, health care, food stamps, tax collection,
Many vendors claim they have analytics, and a lot of users have embraced the belief that analytics is the way to go. But what does analytics really mean, especially to business users without statistics backgrounds, and how much do they need to know about analytics to be able to make
You know the drill. It’s a steamy July morning, and you’re headed out for the day. You open up your go-to weather app to find out if you need to lug your umbrella around. The forecast says, “Sunny with a 30 percent chance of thunderstorms.” What does that mean, exactly?
In a city built on hedging your bets, it is fitting that the Analytics 2014 conference kicked off Monday in Las Vegas with a look at all the unscientific ways people try to predict the future. John Elder, Founder and President of Elder Research, Inc., entertained the audience with examples of how
So, you've heard the Hadoop hype and you are looking – or have already invested – into Hadoop. Maybe you have also realized some benefits from the Hadoop ecosystem. But now you want to maximize those benefits by using advanced analytics, or you might have heard about algorithms or machine learning libraries available
Would you build a house without a proper foundation? Most of us wouldn’t dare, but that’s exactly what many retail businesses are doing today. When building a house, if you don’t get the foundation right, paint, wallpaper and fixtures won’t matter much. It’s no different in the retail industry. Success
As a follow up to my previous post that described analytics in one word, I decided to revisit my choice of the word "strategic" with a video. If the adage "a picture is worth a thousand words" is true, you'll like this version even better than the original. Watch the video
