Book excerpt: THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO USING ANALYTICS TO MANAGE RISK AND UNCERTAINTY IN COMPLEX GLOBAL BUSINESS ENVIRONMENTS Practical techniques for developing reliable, actionable intelligence–and using it to craft strategy Analytical opportunities to solve key managerial problems in global enterprises Written for working managers: packed with realistic, useful examples This guide helps global managers use modern analytics to gain reliable, actionable, and timely business intelligence–and use it to manage risk, build winning strategies, and solve urgent problems. Dr. Hokey Min offers a practical, easy-to-understand overview of business analytics in a global context, focusing especially on managerial and strategic implications. After demystifying today’s core quantitative tools, he demonstrates them at work in a wide spectrum of global applications. You’ll build models to help segment global markets, forecast demand, assess risk, plan financing, optimize supply chains, and more. Along the way, you’ll find practical guidance for developing analytic thinking, operationalizing Big Data in global environments, and preparing for future analytical innovations. Whether you’re a global executive, strategist, analyst, marketer, supply chain professional, student or researcher, this book will help you drive real value from analytics–in smarter decisions, improved strategy, and better management. In today’s global business environments characterized by growing complexity, volatility, and uncertainty, business analytics has become an indispensable tool for managing these challenges. Specifically, global managers need analytics expertise to solve problems, identify opportunities, shape strategy, mitigate risk, and improve their day-to-day operational efficiency. Now, for the first time, there’s an analytics guide designed specifically for decision-makers in global organizations. Leveraging his experience teaching a number of students and training hundreds of managers and executives, Dr. Hokey Min demystifies the principles and tools of modern business analytics, and demonstrates their real-world use in global business. First, Dr. Min identifies key success factors and mindsets, helping you establish the preconditions for effective analysis. Next, he walks you through the practicalities of collecting, organizing, and analyzing Big Data, and developing models to transform them into actionable insight. Building on these foundations, he illustrates core analytical applications in finance, healthcare, and global supply chains. He concludes by previewing emerging trends in analytics, including the newest tools for automated decision-making. Compare today’s key quantitative tools Stats, data mining, OR, and simulation: how they work, when to use them Get the right data... ...and get the data right Predict the future... ...and sense its arrival sooner than others can