Analytics, statistics, and fact-based decisions are not new to business.  Over the years the names have changed from DSS, ESS, OLAP, ROLAP, DW, to BI.  But only recently has analytics emerged from the IT fiefdoms and single applications to optimize key business performances.  This requires more people enterprise-wide to own BI as a vital methodology and understand its center stage role in organizational performance and innovation.  What was once identified as technology is now becoming strategic.  What once only associated with a Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon or MIT is now about values. 

Companies like Amazon, Yahoo, and Harrah’s compete on analytics have senior executives that care about a culture of learning and testing.  They champion the virtue of accuracy and putting controls in place to understand what exactly led to tactical success or failure.  They understand BI needs to steep in a culture in order for it to become actionable and real.  UPS collected data for 7 years.  But it only became usable in the last 2 years, with enough time experience to validate conclusions based on data. 

Gary Loveman, Chairman, CEO, and President of Harrah’s Entertainment, Inc. is by all accounts the poster child of a CEO-supported BI culture.  He turned Harrah’s around by focusing the intelligence closer to the point of transaction.  His Total Rewards program boasts 44 million customers and is recognized as the gaming industry’s most successful loyalty program.