Customer Reviews

The New Know: Innovation Powered by Analytics (Wiley and SAS Business Series)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
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An uneven book, The New Know discussed the importance of analytics while
substantiating its argument using an ethnographic approach, filled with
anecdotes, personal observations, and subjective opinions. It included in its examples of corporations
that represents "a transformed world", GE, a company that lost half
of its value during the derivative debacle, which left this reader confused.
Another example, a doctor using Google to diagnose a patient's illness,
hardly provides a sophisticated analysis of medical treatment.
As an information technology professional, I totally agree with the premise
of this book on the importance of knowing and analyzing your customer, employee, and
business processes. I would suggest reading the books cited heavily in
the notes.

For over 20 years, Thornton has been a consummate advocate for innovation science and the fruition of the role of the CIO in the Fortune 1000. He is an expert in organizational behavior, c-suite engagement and the kind of leadership practices that get the entire organization focused and engaged.

In The New Know Thornton clearly reminds us: it's about the people, people. This text will carry the profession and practice of analytics forward in a way that only Thornton could champion the cause.

Those familiar with Thornton May know that his work puts the capital W in wit, so of course, the book is engaging, charming and full of anthropological anecdotes that will make you chuckle in your plane seat. If you haven't sat next to Thornton, he is the guy with the bow tie that everyone wants to know. He's a futurist that won't give you the answer, but will twist your brain until you take his tools and define your own destiny.

If you're a business leader whose been burned by bad data, got spreadsheets coming out the ying-yang, regularly find your self on the defense about consultation expenses - and still you need better data from the people in the room - take Thornton's course in channeling the organization's inner analyst.

If you make your living as an analyst, for goodness sake, buy the book and make a decision that 2010 will be the year of the analyst. And then make sure you get in a room with Thornton soon. He's on the road over 250 days a year.

"Time and again I come back to the base reality that what we have to know - what society and the workplace says/thinks we have to know - has expanded past the point of what an unaugmented individual mind can know." p 215.

This is, to me, the baseline theme of Thornton May's new book on what the "New Know" is about. For those that don't know Thornton, he is a Futurist in the IT space, and speaks at an alarmingly fast pace publicly. I think that's why I enjoyed the text; his writing packs in a huge amount of insights, comparisons, and parallels into the book. One of Thornton's goals is to try to expose the inner workings of the "data analyst" - us folks that try to learn from information, gathered from data. If you're in that camp, the book will be a pep talk. If you've read several business intelligence strategy books, some of the information here will be known to you, but I found his presentation so energetic, I didn't mind :)

For executives, it's an excellent primer on how to think about the value (or non-value in some cases) of data for future businesses. If you've not read Competing on Analytics (Davenport, Harvard Press), you'll get a 'kick in the rear' talking to in this book on using data to differentiate or lose out. (I recommend Competing on Analytics before or after reading this text.)

Many of us feel like we are in a state of, in Thornton's words a "permanent state of attention deficit disorder" when it comes to digesting information. The New Know suggests a new way of filtering and understanding reality.

The New Know: Innovation Powered by Analytics (Wiley and SAS Business Series)

Thornton May has delivered a masterpiece for anyone at all interested in helping to form the future they will encounter rather than just be subject to where it may take us. The "New Know" is not a map or detailed set of directions but rather a GPS for navigating one's way to sustainable success in the challenging future before us. It is a tool for reacting to what roads and decisions present themselves as we move forward into an age where overwhelming volumes of data offer the opportunity to know whatever we need to, to determine what it is we need to know, and most importantly what to do about what we know. Enjoyable to read, insightful, and a must for those who wish to be engaged participants in determining their future.

May's book was a fun read. He's talked to a lot of executives and done the research to make the book credible. I tend to enjoy books that throw out ideas like a farmer spreads seeds. Some of the topics he covers include:
- the changes in society and business that demand data-driven analytics; repeatedly he shows that we have no choice
- the need to conduct mental experiments through mathematical analytics; no one can afford to do random, uninformed experimentation anymore
- the skill sets of good analysits (he calls it the "trifecta" -- business saavy, technical saavy and an orientation towards analysis)
- the movement of skilled analysts from "mensa zone ghettos" to front and center of the business
- ideation as the raw material of success & the culture of experimentation

Somehow, analytics and war seem to be linked, perhaps because the duress of war forces everyone to look at the data with a fresh, perhaps ferverish perspective. May talks about the "fog of facts" versus the "fog of war" and uncertainties in business are the analog of uncertainties in battle. Only the discipline of analytics gets us past personal opinion and gut feel.

The only drawback to May's book as well as many of the others on the market is the absence of one or two true drill down examples where the data, the math and the results are all chronicled in detail. I don't think that would be appropriate for the body of the book but would be really interesting as an appendix.

Overall I believe this book has the edge on Super Crunchers and Competing on Analytics.

I really enjoyed reading The New Know. Like everything from Thornton May, it's packed with history, wit and insights. In The New Know, May argues quite convincingly that we are at a "hinge in history" regarding the significance of analytics in business decision making. But this book is really not about analytics, per se, and there is not a single mathematical equation to solve. The focus is rightly on the human equation and managerial context surrounding the business intelligence revolution underway in industry today.

Even though my academic and professional roots are in math and business analytics, I'm delighted to see a book that focuses on the analysts instead of the tools. May devotes a lot of attention to the still somewhat mysterious analysts who are being called upon to develop models and render answers. In his writings, May points to two vulnerabilities that stand out in my mind that could impede this hinge in history. First is the need for a much deeper commitment to math education for all students in our country. Math is foundational for everyone working in a world increasingly managed with analytics. And, for the analysts, there is the need to expand their horizons beyond the math and get inside the heads of their business leaders through dialog and relationship management skills.

I don't know if Thornton May has ever drawn a straight line between two points. That makes going on a journey with him a lot of fun. Likewise, success with business analytics is a journey and not a point solution. This book would be great for business executives and managers who are looking for both intellectual and pragmatic perspectives on why they need analytics. It would also be a great read for aspiring analysts.

As a student or experienced analyst, it could be a call to duty. As a business executive, it could enlighten you in how to motivate those scary smart guys in the back room with all the monitors. Whoever you are, you should read this book. You should reread this book.
Although business books on analytics are definitely en vogue, The New Know is different from any of the existing books in circulation. Thornton does a masterful job of switching from futurist to anthropologist and back. The diagnostic elements take one into the important aspects of what makes an analyst tick: how we are motivated; how we approach life; how we are misunderstood, misclassified, and underutilized in organizations; and (most importantly) how this situation is probably our own fault and what we can do to change it. After a through diagnosis, Thornton puts on his futurist hat and explains why this is important to the reader. One important underlying fact that I took away is that analytics will be engrained in every decision in the future. No more will the public at large allow someone of authority to explain a decision by relying purely on a "gut feeling."
Admittedly, I purchased this book with a little trepidation. I am a member of the Thornton fan club. I try to read what he reads. I try to listen to him speak whenever possible. My trepidation was this: "How could the written word contain the energy of Thornton's communication style and presence?" Once reading, and then rereading the book, I realized that worry was silly. The book is written so that the reader is able to read it at an excellent pace. There is no part of the book that "drags." (As a note to a future reader, you simply must read the footnotes at the end of each chapter. The references are excellent and the aside comments give a small glimpse into Thornton's lightening quick thought process.)

As an business analyst and scientist I enjoyed this book and it's review of me, the analytical type in the work world. May does a great job of covering the issues.

If you are a data person you must read this.

I ordered this book from Amazon in U.S., and shipped it to China. So it cost me more than $40 for this tedious book. I am so disappointed.

The author is a futurist. In my opinion, futurist is not so credible. The author is somebody who spend more than 200 days on his trip (he is a kind of proud of this in his book), so it is impossible for him to do some serious research.

I am reading "Competeting on Analytics" and "Super Crunchers" at the same time. I have take notes of more than 50,000 words from these two books. But I feel there is nothing important for me to take notes from this book. The whole book is full of consultant like "definition" and "evaluation", futurist like "should be", but I don't think these assertions have any meaning. Just like I was told "You should be good", and so?

For these three books, I like "Super Crunchers" most, it is thought-provoking. "Competing on Analytics" is OK. But I dislike this one.

Thornton May applies his formidable intellect to a challenging paradox facing executives as we evolve through the "Age of Little Knowledge". How do we increase our ability to absorb information coming at us at ever higher velocity and mass while simultaneously "slow down" to apply a level of introspection - "Thinking about Thinking" - that is not natural to many executives. Within that paradox is a fascinating series of proposed realities that Thornton addresses in his unique way that is both accessible and challenging. It's easy to take the proposition here as a threat and to be fearful - Thornton's challenge to us is to see The New Know as an opportunity, to slow down and think. This is The New Know's most valuable lesson.