NCSU's Institute for Advanced Analytics
Last week I had the privilege to be a part of North Carolina State University's industry board meeting for the Institute for Advanced Analytics . For those that haven't heard, there is a groundbreaking program going on at NCSU that offers a graduate degree in the field of analytics. NCSU is literally a pioneer in this space as no other university offers this kind of analytics education and curriculum.
Obviously, based on my role here at Capstrat, I think analytics is important to running a successful business. Increasingly, smart companies are realizing the value of making data-driven decisions and are looking for employees that can grasp the concepts and tools needed to turn massive amounts of data into insights and ultimately a competitive advantage. Unfortunately, up to this point getting educated in the skills needed to do so was relatively difficult. Sure, you could learn statistics, but what about the analytical methodologies, tools, thought processes, and business acumen you need to be successful? It just wasn't previously available until this program came along.
While I was getting my MBA at NCSU, I was somewhat amazed how little analytics played as a part of the curriculum. I did have a couple of excellent analytics and statistics classes, but I still didn't feel it was enough. Its my belief that analytics, especially in the realm of marketing, is an absolute must have. Marketers in the digital age must be versed in this stuff. How else do you know what the value of marketing is? How can you improve your tactics? How do you know where to spend your marketing dollars?
At some point, I'd like to see some of the curriculum from the Analytics Institute make its way into the traditional MBA education as that is where the future is heading. Employers are looking for analytical decision makers.
Besides the fantastic curriculum which explores emerging areas such as data mining, text mining, web analytics and predictive modeling, I think the most interesting aspect is how the curriculum is created. Dr. Rappa and staff actually have a ton of autonomy in shaping the curriculum based on input from industry. What are employers looking for? What skills do they need? They can literally change the coursework as they see fit which means the curriculum is very adaptable to the fast-paced economic climate we find ourselves in.
Traditional graduate programs have to piece together courses that fit into an accreditation process. Often courses are selected years in advance and as a result most MBA programs and business schools are very similar in their curriculum and approaches. The Institute has no such restrictions. As a result, the Institute can remain unique in its ability to innovate and stay ahead of the curve.
I look forward to continuing to work with the program in the future, as I believe this program exemplifies where business education is heading because of the analytics focus as well as the way they are constructing the curriculum.
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