New UNB Program Helps Students Learn How To Help Companies Drowning In Data
Today’s firms are drowning in data.
As shopping, socializing, payroll, and more move online, the opportunity to hoover in information is expanding—and most everyone is capitalizing on it.
That trend is creating a new generation of data-wielding wizards that are shaping the way companies operate in a modern business landscape.
Martin Wielemaker is the associate dean of strategic initiatives at UNB Fredericton’s faculty of management.
He says the world of data analysis was once the domain of mathematicians and coders who were great when they were elbow-deep in data, but helpless in front of the C-suite.
But that doesn’t fly today. It’s why he and others at the faculty of management created the school’s new MBA Concentration in Management Analytics.
He says they’re trying to prepare students to excel in a new data economy that gives them access to more information than ever before, but also demands better explanations of what it all means.
Take the HR world as an example.
Not long ago, most HR departments didn’t have data any more sophisticated than what percentage of their workforce is male or female, or how many employees fell into a certain age group.
But the insights coming from analysts trained at programs like UNB’s go so much deeper.
Wielemaker says modern analytics wizards have moved beyond simple “descriptive” data and into the “predictive” world.
They can parse the numbers and tell you how high your company’s turnover will likely be, or what percentage of applicants you will get based on certain hiring practices.
They can also draw conclusions with a kind of accuracy that was once impossible.
Alireza Tajbakhsh is a UNB professor who teaches several management analytics courses.
He says one of the first things students taking the concentration will learn is how to understand and manipulate massive datasets.
In this field you’re dealing with really big data, so you need to know how to store data, sort it, process it, organize and refine it. We teach them the tools they need to do that,” he says.
His students also learn how to collect and store data in “smart, efficient” ways, giving them a further leg up in the business world.
Wielemaker points out that having the skills to make sense of torrents of data is great. But unless an analyst can communicate what they learn in a digestible way, they’re not that useful.
It’s the main point of UNB’s new program: to make sure students can use their skills in the real world.
You have to be able to work on real-world business problems for real organizations,” he says.
One of the keystones of the program is a data visualization course. In it, students learn to tell a story about what a set of data means and how an organization can use it.
Modern businesses are more multi-faceted than ever. HR, marketing, and finance each have their own sets of expertise and they need analysts that understand their specific needs.
“What our students bring to the table is the ability to talk to business leaders in a way that makes sense to them. They can bring their knowledge of HR or marketing into their data analysis and come away with much more useful insights because of it,” Wielemaker says.
That kind of expertise can’t be underestimated.
Wielemaker says he’s seen students present data to organizations in such compelling ways the organization has mandated all its employees adopt a similar system in future presentations.
“It just shows how important these skills are in the modern business world,” he says. “You can see the impact students are making.”
Vinoth Kanna, a UNB student taking the management analytics concentration, says the new program will certainly enhance his career prospects.
Today every business is moving toward data-driven decision making. Whatever the field we work in, it is an added advantage to have analytics knowledge. It’s going to be the future,” he says.
“With the help of the concentration in management analytics, I am confident I can gain practical knowledge that will give me vast opportunities to work with many multinationals in my field,” Kanna adds.
The faculty of management already offers several management analytics courses. This fall will be the first time MBA students can take it as a concentration.
For more information, and a complete course description, visit the UNB Fredericton’s Faculty of Management online.
This story is sponsored by the UNB Fredericton’s faculty of management.