Book Analysis of "Winning with Data" by Tomasz Tungez and Frank Bien

Management is the process of pursuing organizational goals by planning, organizing, controlling, and leading with the goal of efficiency and effectiveness. Often consumers of any good look to the management to make sure that their needs are met to their desire. As the world becomes faster and more advanced companies and businesses are challenged with keeping their products modern and up-to-date with the times. As companies move forward, it is the responsibility of management and leadership to introduce change as well as have the necessary means to accommodate it. Generally, change is sometimes vital in making sure and organization stays competitive. Change is defined as to make or become different.

In Tomasz Tungez and Frank Bien’s “Winning with Data”, look at how utilizing and understanding vast amounts of data can be instrumental in transforming businesses. It assists individuals and business owners in adapting their organizations to have maximum effect using data. Changes in technology(data) results in a culture shift. Companies want to be able to maximize the benefit of utilizing and understanding the everyday data changes, it optimizes every aspect of business, improve decision making, and transform business strategy. In chapter 4, “Achieving Data Enlightenment”, the authors spend time explaining how monitoring customer behavior and satisfaction during every point of the Buyer Journey, can be used as complements to price elasticity and transform the perception of the company. Price elasticity is the measure of customer responsiveness of demand or supply to changes in price. In the book they used an NPS (Net Promoter Score) survey, which is mostly utilized to measure customer loyalty. Utilizing this data along with customer information, customer trends help marketing and human resources teams better serve the company’s customer base. Utilizing data, will help organizations understand who their customers are and what their customers like. How do we inquire the data, what do we do with the data we inquire and how will the data make “us” or “our companies” win? Conclusions and decisions can be made about products by utilizing data. The data usually used is usually generated and gathered by consumer feedback. There are various forms of data such as Self-Reported Data, Enhanced Data, Web-Based Data, Social Media and more commonly used Transactional Data. The success of amazon is derived in their use of data. Amazon utilized data gathered from their customers browsing history as well as their customers shopping habits to streamline products that they believe would be liked based on data that they have complied to persuade you to buy products. Tunguz and Bien point out that “Product managers record the actions of users by the millisecond to understand exactly which customer journeys optimize revenue and where in the product customers exhibit confusion or drop off (2).” Amazon has won people over by their ability to provide low prices and an easy and efficient customer experience. Amazon’s use and implementation of the data they have complied is what has given them that “win” capability over their competitors. In times like these and with technology being so pivotal and at people’s fingertips its almost inevitable not to utilize data to advance your business, company or even your life.

In the book there is a chapter titled “Changing the Way we Operate”, this chapter looks at how large data companies such as Uber and even Google Maps utilizes public data released by local governments that enable these companies to review the data and reveal trends in neighborhoods for things such as Urban planning and pricing strategies. The authors also go on to tell a narrative insinuating that any change begins with a story. Ben Wellington is trained in data science and utilized his skillset to reveal the trends that are present in urban planning, in particular in the New York City Area. The first analysis he published looked at the cycling injuries in across five boroughs. This information was later syndicated by news outlets and traffic ballooned. Ben placed an emphasis on the importance of connecting peoples existing experiences with current data. Allowing individuals to relate to the given data will maximize its impact. As companies view and look at data it allows them to better tailor their products to their customers. By telling stories with the data it allows companies to control their narrative and describe the impact and power of the data being shared. Data will eventually become the forefront of companies changing policies, practices and products to meet the needs of society and to stay successful.

In class we talk about how even evaluating employees and their performance can make or break companies and the amount of business they receive. We also talk about how planning, controlling and making decisions are also very important aspects of management. By looking at data points within the production process, leadership can evaluate the effectiveness of certain processes and decide whether they should, improve, or delete the current method. As I was reading there were ideals and research that I didn’t back 100 percent. I agree that data does allow for a company to evaluate and change things to maximize profit. In the book they have a process in which they structure presentations to inspire individuals to fund their projects. On page 136, they highlight about creating the arc of the story, and I disagree with their position. The text states that “there are various techniques to tell stories, but there seems to be a consistent pattern in the structure of successful pitch desks.” I feel as if that statement is false and that they only based these assumptions on big tech companies whose business endeavors are tailored around the current status of data. I also feel as if a storyline should be something natural and easy to explain and tell and not a contest on who has the best story to sell the customer. What if the story is not true to the company and they are just coming up with narratives to reach multiple markets and the product does bad. That is money spent on marketing and research that can’t be given back.

As a Business major, reading this book as well as taking various classes learning about different aspects within business. The book went in to depth about various topics that are discussed in the classroom setting it also showed me how these things we learn in the classroom effect people in real time. I have always been an abstract thinking and a problem solver, with sharp critical skills, but I never really knew the impact or the importance of data. The book, “Winning with Data” really answered the why questions I have about having my own business.