Book excerpt: Now that you've collected the data and crunched the numbers, what do you do with all this information? How do you take the fruit of your analytics labor and apply it to business decision making? How do you actually apply the information gleaned from quants and tech teams? Applied Business Analytics will help you find optimal answers to these questions, and bridge the gap between analytics and execution in your organization. Nathaniel Lin explains why "analytics value chains" often break due to organizational and cultural issues, and offers "in the trenches" guidance for overcoming these obstacles. You'll learn why a special breed of "analytics deciders" is indispensable for any organization that seeks to compete on analytics; how to become one of those deciders; and how to identify, foster, support, empower, and reward others who join you. Lin draws on actual cases and examples from his own experience, augmenting them with hands-on examples and exercises to integrate analytics at every level: from top-level business questions to low-level technical details. Along the way, you'll learn how to bring together analytics team members with widely diverse goals, knowledge, and backgrounds. Coverage includes: How analytical and conventional decision making differ -- and the challenging implications How to determine who your analytics deciders are, and ought to be Proven best practices for actually applying analytics to decision-making How to optimize your use of analytics as an analyst, manager, executive, or C-level officer