About Furman Experience and Advice on Including Analytics in the - PDF document

7/ 20/ 2014 About Furman Experience and Advice on Including Analytics in the Curriculum Kirk Karwan Department of Business & Accounting Furman University • Private, liberal arts, all undergraduate • In Greenville, SC along I-85 • Business and Accounting department • and majors, separate Economics dept., • no statistics department • Strong alumni involvement Current Undergraduate Broader Question: Does Analytics Analytics Class Offer a Potential Win-Win?  BUS 337 – Business Analytics I  “The time is nigh… ”  Last spring, 28 juniors and seniors,  Everyone is talking about it… heavily Business Administration majors. Spring 2014, to be similar  These opportunities come and go  Background primarily limited to an introductory economics-based statistics course Topical Areas Interesting and Relevant Development…  Marketing analytics  Risk analytics • Analytics is key to competitive  Fraud analytics advantage, value, continuous  CRM analytics improvement, innovation and  Loyalty analytics even organizational power!!  Operations analytics  HR analytics  Election analytics (!) 1

7/ 20/ 2014 Two-Stage and Two-Pronged Business Student Awareness Approach at Furman  Important to be fed by other  Separate courses in different coursework and experiences departments • We have an integrated curriculum with • Business Analytics I and II in Business visiting executives Administration • Job prospects… in our case, EXCEL is key • Data Mining in Math and Comp Science • Virtually all disciplines can contribute;  An interdisciplinary minor among applications are powerful Business Administration, Computer Science, and Mathematics Caveat Interdisciplinary Minor  A serious challenge, even at a  We could mess this up again… think smaller school like Furman OR and MIS  Mathematics, Computer Science and Economics faculty members are in favor but • disparate ways of thinking about it • degree of compromise is an issue • analogous question in B-Schools… 2

Experience and Advice on Including Analytics in the Curriculum Kirk Karwan Department of Business & Accounting Furman University

About Furman • Private, liberal arts, all undergraduate • In Greenville, SC along I-85 • Business and Accounting department • and majors, separate Economics dept., • no statistics department • Strong alumni involvement

Current Undergraduate Analytics Class  BUS 337 – Business Analytics I  Last spring, 28 juniors and seniors, heavily Business Administration majors. Spring 2014, to be similar  Background primarily limited to an introductory economics-based statistics course

Broader Question: Does Analytics Offer a Potential Win-Win?  “The time is nigh… ”  Everyone is talking about it…  These opportunities come and go

Interesting and Relevant Development… • Analytics is key to competitive advantage, value, continuous improvement, innovation and even organizational power!!

Topical Areas  Marketing analytics  Risk analytics  Fraud analytics  CRM analytics  Loyalty analytics  Operations analytics  HR analytics  Election analytics (!)

Two-Stage and Two-Pronged Approach at Furman  Separate courses in different departments • Business Analytics I and II in Business Administration • Data Mining in Math and Comp Science  An interdisciplinary minor among Business Administration, Computer Science, and Mathematics

Business Student Awareness  Important to be fed by other coursework and experiences • We have an integrated curriculum with visiting executives • Job prospects… in our case, EXCEL is key • Virtually all disciplines can contribute; applications are powerful

Caveat  We could mess this up again… think OR and MIS

Interdisciplinary Minor  A serious challenge, even at a smaller school like Furman  Mathematics, Computer Science and Economics faculty members are in favor but • disparate ways of thinking about it • degree of compromise is an issue • analogous question in B-Schools…