Analytics Magazine Analytics Magazine, November/December 2014 | Page 28

B ig data b u z z k i ll Goal-driven analytics Big data needs advanced analytics, but analytics does not need big data. By Eric A. King T hanks big data! Now we’re even more data-rich …yet remain information-poor. After staggering investments motivated by an overabundance of buzz and hype, big data has yet to produce cases that reveal substantial verified return. Organizations are becoming harder pressed to show value, but they’re not sure where or how to draw it. 28 | a n a ly t i c s - m a g a z i n e . o r g Professor Dan Ariely of Duke University relates big data to teenage sex: “Everyone talks about it; no one really knows how to do it,” he says. “Everyone thinks everyone else is doing it; so everyone claims they’re doing it.” In an article from the December 2013 Harvard Business Review by Jeanne W. Ross, Cynthia M. Beath and Anne Quaadgras, the very title suggests that “You May Not w w w. i n f o r m s . o r g