Kellogg School Holds Data Analytics Discussion at Facebook: MBA News

By Tim Dhoul Updated Nov 13, 2014

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Introduction
Big data’s specialization days are over says Kellogg professor

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The Kellogg School was at Facebook headquarters on Tuesday night to consider the power of big data analytics and how it can be successfully harnessed.

Gary Briggs, Facebook’s chief marketing officer and an alumnus of the Kellogg School, was joined in the panel discussion by fellow alumni from marketing software company, Marketo, and VC firm, Norwest Venture Partners.

“The ability to tell the story using analytics is so crucial now,” said Briggs, according to the Kellogg School’s Twitter account. Briggs joined Facebook in 2013 from Motorola Mobility, owned by Google at the time but recently acquired by Lenovo.

Representing the Kellogg School, meanwhile, were professors Florian Zettelmeyer and Brian Uzzi as well as the school’s dean, Sally Blount.

“Big data is a team sport and you have to figure out what you want to play,” Uzzi said, with prospective MBA students in mind.

Big data’s specialization days are over says Kellogg professor

The alumni event, ‘Big Data Doesn't Make Bad Decisions, Leaders Do’ formed part a data analytics immersion program that brings faculty from the Kellogg School into discussion with industry leaders by drawing on the school’s alumni network.

Zettelmeyer, marketing professor at the Kellogg School, launched the program last year and says it has reaffirmed his belief that all MBAs should have a working knowledge of data analytics at the very least: “The days of analytics as a specialization are completely over. Analytics is a competitive necessity.” Zettelmeyer says in an article explaining the program’s raison d’être.

The goal in travelling to practitioners such as Facebook is for Kellogg School faculty to see ideas brought to life in industry and to come away with inspiration for future research. It also provides an opportunity for alumni working with data analytics to get to grips with new methods being put in practice.

Past events have seen the Kellogg School hosted by IBM’s Advanced Analytics Lab and a Chicago-based firm created by the team who carried out the data mining for Barack Obama’s 2012 successful re-election campaign.

“No one owns the truth in this area [big data]. Academics don’t own the truth, and the companies don’t own the truth. The only way to make yourself smarter is to find out what other people are doing,” Zettelmeyer surmises.

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Tim Dhoul

Tim is a writer with a background in consumer journalism and charity communications. He trained as a journalist in the UK and holds degrees in history (BA) and Latin American studies (MA).