IBM recently set up a March Madness bracket for a field of 16 Big Data teams. Last week, Natasha Gabriel listed the elite eight who made it past the first stage.  Well, after another grueling week of competition, the stage has been set for the Final Four. Here is how the bracket is stacking up.

Predict Customer Behavior (PCB), without even breaking a sweat, easily handled Improve Campaign Effectiveness (ICE). With cheers from the crowd of their adoring fans, PCB outmaneuvered and outgunned ICE. Saying that PCB is a superstar performer is an understatement. I believe that PCB is the team to beat in this contest.

On a separate court, the rising star of...

Accenture recently released a report about the use of analytics in business. In the summer of 2012, they surveyed 600 executives from the US and UK about their use of analytics. Accenture found that adoption of analytics is up and interest continues to grow.

• Predictive analytics is up threefold (33% in 2012) since 2009.
• 68% of the executives rated their senior management team to be highly or totally committed to analytics and fact-based decision making.
• Within the last 18 months, two out of three companies have appointed a senior figure (e.g., “chief data officer”) to lead data management and analytics.

While interest in analytics continues to climb, businesses still struggle to find the value in analytics:

• Only 20% of executives are very satisfied with the business outcomes of their existing analytics programs.
• Roughly...

I have been doing some work on how investment professionals can use customer feedback as part of their valuation process. I include a case study of an investment firm that used customer feedback to help confirm the valuation of the target company (it did), and also where to start in terms of managing the business to secure its future.

Investment professionals take a huge risk when they purchase or make a significant investment in a business. To identify and minimize their investment risk, these professionals conduct due diligence of the business. Due diligence is an investigation or audit of a potential investment. Investors typically examine such matters as the business’ finances, proprietary information, employees, insurance, equipment and property, and litigation claims, to name a few (Entrepreneur.com offers these due diligence ...

Article on RAPID Loyalty Approach – click to download article

There seems to be a consensus among customer feedback professionals that business growth depends on improving customer loyalty. It appears, however, that there is little agreement in how they define and measure customer loyalty. In this and subsequent blog posts, I examine the concept of customer loyalty, presenting different definitions of this construct. I attempt to summarize their similarities and differences and present a definition of customer loyalty that is based on theory and practical...