Learning the 'ABC' of Big Data

While corporations lay emphasis on the importance of Big Data and data analytics, what are B-schools doing to ensure students are well equipped in this aspect?

What was once the forte of internet companies and research agencies is now a raging demand across industries. We're talking of data analytics - the big game changer that can help enterprises gain a competitive advantage. A McKinsey study last year stated that companies using Big Data and data analytics effectively show productivity rates and profitability that are 5-6 per cent higher than competitors.

But the quest for the implementation of data analytics is fraught with challenges - chief among which is the lack of skilled manpower. This requires an intense focus on data analytics by management institutes to make their students industry-ready, and the good news is B-schools are stepping up to look into this area seriously. In recent years, many schools have introduced formal courses in analytics. Those ahead on the curve have been the IITs, SP Jain Institute of Management & Research, Mumbai, (using Statistical Analysis System, or SAS, for several years already) and the IIM-B, which, jointly with SAS Institute, has floated an executive programme on Analytics.

While statistics and quantitative methods were being taught earlier, the general reluctance of students to work with numerical techniques led to a gradual dilution of these courses. In the last two years, many B-Schools have re-emphasised advanced analytics techniques such as 'Clustering' and even procured licenses of IT-based tools for analytics. "However, very few institutes teach Big Data technologies like Hadoop," says Pradeep Pendse, dean, e-business, Welingkar Institute of Management Development and Research. Welingkar has its own Analytics course covering statistics, tools and techniques, followed by an additional Big Data course, taught by professionals.

The Indian School of Business (ISB) launched a one-year certificate programme in Business Analytics last year, which also gives hands-on training with projects based on data from companies for students to solve 'real time data problems'. Additionally, ISB organises camps where open data sets in the public domain (like the recent Lok Sabha elections data on social media) are given to students for analysis. "The convergence of technology with functions like marketing, banking etc has led to this Big Data wave. The e-commerce boom in India - all about logistics and supply chain management - is only adding to it," says Deepa Mani, joint executive director, Srini Raju Centre for IT and the Networked Economy, and assistant professor of information systems, ISB.

Some of the popular hiring sectors in India that look for data analytics as a specialisation include digital companies, ad agencies, research agencies, IT companies, retail or FMCG companies that wish to analyse consumer behaviour, power distribution companies (to forecast and monitor power demands), telecom companies (for operations, fraud detection etc), banks (in particular, credit card companies) and companies which provide loyalty marketing services.

Internationally, a vast number of management schools including New York University, University of Texas at Austin, Georgia Tech etc have had Analytics certificate programmes for the last five years or more, along with huge advanced analytics labs. London Business School teaches the principles of Big Data and analytics in its MBA programme; the class theme for MBAs graduating in 2016 will be 'Big Data: The Future of Business?' The role of MBA in analytics is not so much to analyse data, as much as it is to sense opportunities for the application of Big Data or analytics techniques in various segments of a business.