Meyer:  What is the most compelling way to package or visualize BI insights to the CEO?

To somebody who is not trained in these analytical methods a solution or answer may seem just as mystical as religion, because if no one has have been taught optimization, neural networks, any of these techniques when you come up with a solution that is going to show them the answer to them it is just like religion because they are not trained in it. 

Meyer:  At best this mode of decision-making becomes one option or relative platform that you can adopt or not adopt.

Exactly!  To the untrained CEO if you show them a sheet of numbers, regardless of whether they prove the point or not, if the CEO is not skilled in the methods, the numbers don’t mean anything to them.  But if you create a dynamic graphic: if you apply this policy here’s the congestion at the airport; if you don’t apply this policy here’s the situation; and here’s a visualization of the numbers as they change over time; or this is the inventory in your warehouse and watch it grow; this is why it’s growing and why it is not growing; see how the things are entering the warehouse or not coming in; this is your retail store watch what happens to the purchasing behavior as you change the price in real-time.

I used to do work in geo-demographics and color thematic mapping; red is where the customers are not; green is where the customers are; as opposed to someone showing you an Excel spreadsheet that has a list of different machines.

Meyer:  So what you’re saying is a compelling visualization will make BI more understandable and emotive.

There is a second piece.  When the CEO is looking at what you are saying he needs an easy way to tell somebody else about it.  So if he doesn’t understand it then how can explain it to some else.  So if you give him a simple graphic he gets a tool to get everyone sharing the same vision. 

Meyer:  Like a single version of the truth.