Sunday, February 26, 2012

Homework #6

    The article that I decided to research was "How Big Data Is Changing The Way We Lead" by Forbes Magazine. The article was published on February 1, 2012 so it is relatively new. The reason why I chose this was the title really grabbed my attention and I thought it would be interesting to see how data affects the way certain organizations do things.

    Institute Director for North Carolina, Dr. Michael Rappa is in charge of training thousands of students each year on how to become data scientists. These students are constantly being recruited by major companies for job opportunities. Rappa truly believes that "the net result of big data is a more decisive kind of decision making." In other words, Rappa believes that by studying large amounts of data on a particular topic, you will maintain more knowledge and more than likely make a more efficient decision. The more you are familiar with a topic the more comfortable you will be when deciding whats in the best interest of that topic.


     Rappa went on to mention the benefits of C-level executives who use the data-driven culture. The following quote really stuck out to me while reading this article.


"If you feel that you can trust your data scientists and the models they build, if your team can buy into a culture that values data, the grey areas that open the door to political infighting disappear.” 

      What Rappa is trying to say here is that if a large company is able to trust their data scientists and believe they are capable of providing the correct information for success than your company will be better off. Also, it will take away from the stress of other company executives. 

       This particular way of operating, "C-level" ownership is becoming more and more powerful. You are seeing more large companies such as Google adding these "data scientists" to their work force to enable successful feedback on certain information. Dr. Rappa has a well-respected and well-known institution going on in North Carolina and serves for one of the largest data scientist providers in the country.

2 comments:

  1. Tyler, I thought your article was very interesting this week. Michael Rappa seems like a brilliant man, I would love to have been selected to be one of his students. I particularly like his philosophy that the more you are familiar with a topic the more comfortable you will be when deciding what in best interest for that topic. I agree with him in a sense that you have to trust your data scientist and believe they are capable of providing the correct information for success. If there is no trust in your personal data scientist your company would never work out. It’s amazing to see how Dr. Rappa is just pumping out data scientist for the world; even companies like Google are adding data scientists to the mix. Overall I liked the article you chose to do, and I think you did a good job elaborating on the topic.

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  2. Tyler, this is a very interesting article. I did not even know there were data scientist, though I guess it makes sense. I think in every company it is important to trust the creators and genius's behind the operation. If you don't, what else can you trust? So it makes sense that if you trust your scientists, you will rest easier at night. It is interesting how Dr. Rappa helps train all of these scientists, I wonder if there is anywhere else for them to learn or if he is the "go to guy" for this industry. Overall I think you did a really good job explaining and analyzing the article, I enjoyed reading your post!

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