The title of this post is a quote credited to Winston Churchill, although the attribution is questionable. It conveys the notion that dramatic events generate new insights and create opportunities for growth. Put another way, "look for the silver lining."…
We have previously written about the perils of third-party data in forecasting. The notion that more data helps improve forecasting is true in principle, albeit in practice it can make things worse. An article published in the fourth quarter 2022…
Many have touted the inclusion of data from outside the firm as a way to improve forecast accuracy. The idea is that, with the incorporation of more information to explain the demand signal, forecasts are bound to be better. In…
After many months of angst about rapidly rising commodity prices, indications are that they are coming back down. This presents an opportunity for a data-driven business that uses advanced analytics. Though there is pain in operating a supply chain under…
Following up with our infocomic on our work in the rail industry, here is another fun little illustration depicting some of the work we at First Analytics have done. This one focuses on consumer products (including CPG) and retail. These…
Much attention has been heaped upon the data science profession for about a decade now, including by our own chairman, Tom Davenport, who called it "the sexiest job of the 21st Century". Well-known hierarchies of types of analytics generally show…
Let us not forget that the CPG industry was THE pioneer in using data and analytics to manage business, as far back as the 1930s. As companies in the coming months deal with reconfigured supply chains, re-imagined product offerings, and…
A quote attributed to Winston Churchill, perhaps incorrectly, "a lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on." In this day of social media and instant communications this is even more true. …
An article in the Economist warns that, "a cabal of AI-enhanced price-bots might plausibly hatch a method of colluding that even their handlers could not understand, let alone be held responsible for." The article describes a situation in Martha's Vineyard…
Rob Stevens with First Analytics will be speaking at the upcoming Foresight Practitioner Conference November 13th at 9:30 AM in Chapel Hill, NC. This conference will primarily focus on Artificial Intelligence and what this means for forecasting and planning. Rob…