I recently participated in the last of a five-city series “How to Compete on Analytics: Apply It” in Chicago and found the following worth sharing: Jeanne Harris, co-author of Competing on Analytics says that analytics are changing the way people learn, make decisions and compete.

If you don’t believe me – and Jeanne - just watch the TV show Numb3rs and see for yourself. This series is inspired by actual events and depicts how the confluence of police work and mathematics provides unexpected revelations and answers to the most perplexing criminal questions. To quote the show “We all use math everyday… To forecst the weather, to handle money. WE also use math to analtyze crime, to predict patterns and to predict behavior.”

In fact, I recently read the article This is your life with SAS, which takes this one step closer to home, not just math everyday, but SAS everyday in our lives!!

So, why should you care? Well, an education program called We All Use Math Every Day provides educational resources based on the mathematics featured in episodes of the show Numbers, and the material is created by teachers and mathematicians, and is aimed at grades 9-12. So, if middle schoolers can do this, why shouldn’t the rest of us be able to figure it out!

So, I challenge you to determine what you need to learn and do everyday to Compete on Analytics? Here’s what I think:

• Define business intelligence and analytics.
• Determine the steps needed for fact-based decision making.
• Build a vision for a Competency Center.
• Create an analytics business model.
• Identify and mainstream analytical resources within your organization.

Up for the challenge? Send your learnings my way. I’d love to keep seeing how we all use math everyday.