Analytics Magazine Analytics Magazine, November/December 2014 | Page 12

Analy ze T h i s ! An analytics professor/ practitioner looks at 50 “Time, time, time, see what’s become of me. While I looked around for my possibilities, I was so hard to please.” — “A Hazy Shade of Winter,” by Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel [1] Between my day job as a business school analytics teacher, an odd collection of research projects and various other analyticsrelated commitments, these days I feel like I’m working on a wider variety of projects than ever! By Vijay Mehrotra 12 | By the time that you read this, I will be 50 years old. The Big Five Oh. Indeed, I am now officially eligible to join the American Association of Retired Persons. The thing is, I’m not retired. Not even close. In fact, between my day job as a business school analytics teacher, an odd collection of research projects and various other analytics-related commitments, these days I feel like I’m working on a wider variety of projects than ever! In fact, in approaching this milestone birthday, I have had a chance to reflect on a variety of matters personal and professional. Here, in no particular order, are some of my thoughts upon arriving at the half-century mark. Update on analytics survey. In early 2013, I asked readers of this column to complete an online survey to support a research project that Accenture’s Jeanne Harris and I were doing. Many of you graciously took the time to respond affirmatively to this request, and thus ended up taking our rather lengthy survey. Survey respondents were asked to answer questions about a wide variety of topics including job titles, educational background, organizational structure and a n a ly t i c s - m a g a z i n e . o r g w w w. i n f o r m s . o r g