Abstract:- What could a Strategy Consulting firm have to do with or say about big data? We see Big Data leading the way on new products but also disrupting our clients business processes and business models. For many clients and big data fans, the temptation is to think big data and machine learning disrupt the need for strategy. Just throw the data in the lake and a bunch of programmers with machine learning fishing poles and we will be done. Here is a rapid-fire review of what really happens Use case 1: Use case 2: Use case 3: What did we learn working with these clients? Strategy still matters: Data is cheap; attention is not. While data and computational power are increasingly plentiful, people have limited attention and energy. Complexity can kill not so much in the model itself but in how it affects processes and decisions. Data is not so cheap after all. We continue to underappreciate data architecture, governance, and engineering. These frequently take up most of the effort required for analytics success. Winning with Big Data is often less about the latest technology platform but in our strategy, culture, organizational capabilities, the way we implement algorithms, how we make decisions with data, and the impacts these have on employees and customers.

1. Big Data Day LA 2017
Data is cheap, strategy matters

2. This information is confidential and was prepared by Bain & Company solely for the use of our client; it is not to be relied on by any 3rd party without Bain's prior written consent 2
Jason
1991 U of Utah GSB: consumer decision making & quantitative methods & start working with
Jordan Louviere, “godfather” of discrete choice modelling (conjoint)
1997
2002
2008
2011
2016
Australia on projects for Qantas, NAB, Telstra, etc.; startup Test & Learn platform for online
marketing optimization; start up automated data mining
BAIN & COMPANY as a specialist in primary research & marketing analytics; develop
Bain's Net Promoter Score analytics platform
MANAGER in growing analytics team; HBR article with Eric Almquist "What do customers
really want?“
SENIOR MANAGER; building advanced analytic team, test & learn and data science
capabilities
PRINCIPAL; upgrading operations and supply chain analytics capabilities

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Bain capability areas
Results Delivery
Strategy
Customer
Strategy and
Marketing
Performance
Improvement
M&A/Corporate Finance
Organization
Information Technology
Digital Advanced Analytics

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We support our clients to realize the potential of Big Data / Advanced
Analytics, answering four questions
Org & capability development
Results delivery
How can Advanced
Analytics help us
improve products and
processes?
How can our data assets
help us transform our
existing business? Enter
new ones?
Advanced Analytics StrategyAdvanced Analytics Decision Support
Business Outcomes
How do we manage the change process? How do we develop our organization and
capabilities to enable our strategy?
2
4
1
3

5. This information is confidential and was prepared by Bain & Company solely for the use of our client; it is not to be relied on by any 3rd party without Bain's prior written consent 5
BIG DATA AND ANALYTICS IS DISRUPTING BUSINESS PROCESSES AND
MODELS
“72% of companies predict their industry
will be affected in the next three years.”
HBR research 2016
“AI may soon replace even the most elite
consultants.”
HBR article July 24,2017
“Jeff Bezos overtakes Bill Gates to become
world's richest man.”
Forbes, July 27, 2017

6. This information is confidential and was prepared by Bain & Company solely for the use of our client; it is not to be relied on by any 3rd party without Bain's prior written consent 6

7. HOTEL CO UTILITY CO RETAILER CO

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HOTEL CO NEEDED A NEW MODEL ARCHITECTURE AND WAY
OF WORKING TO DRIVE ADOPTION
Major performance improvement program with
increased focus on Customers and Marketing
Centralize Direct Marketing analytics and adopt best practices
and increase coordination across properties
SITUATION
COMPLICATION
Growing Advanced Analytics team building
improved and increasingly complex models
Stakeholder mistrust and
Analytics team defensiveness
Model complexity and lack of documentation make it
difficult to scale, evaluate & communicate

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UTILITY CO STRUGGLED TO DELIVER VALUE FROM DATA AND
ANALYTICS INVESTMENTS
Utility Co on multi-year journey to
reduce operations costs and improve customer experience
CEO frustrated at lack of results to show for its
Advanced Analytics credentials and “Big Data” projects
SITUATION
Lack of coordination across business unitsCOMPLICATION
No clear strategy to prioritize and monitor
analytics use cases
Data is siloed and Data Science talent dispersed

10. This information is confidential and was prepared by Bain & Company solely for the use of our client; it is not to be relied on by any 3rd party without Bain's prior written consent 10
RETAILER CO. NEEDED NEW TOOLS TO
STAY AHEAD OF SUPPLIERS AND COMPETITORS
SITUATION
Retail Co. has long history of year or year cost cutting, but facing
increasing price competition
Suppliers increasingly sophisticated;
Buyers need new tools to support negotiations
Data was inconsistent and lacked clear ownershipCOMPLICATION
Buyers were not using all the data they could to
improve negotiation outcomes
Lack of tools to support insight discovery

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MOST BUSINESSES ARE STRUGGLING TO CAPTURE VALUE FROM THEIR
BIG DATA AND ANALYTICS INVESTMENTS
Companies deploying into production
Companies investing in big data “Many big data projects don't have a
tangible ROI that can be determined upfront“
“Lack of effective business leadership or
involvement in data initiatives”
“Pilots and experiments are built with ad-
hoc technologies and infrastructure that
are not created with production-level reliability
in mind”
Gartner October, 2016

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MAJORITY OF ANALYTICS TIME IS SPENT ACCESSING, JOINING,
PREPARING, CLEANING OUR CLIENTS’ DATA
Analytical time spent on data preparation

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What we
frequently hear
from our clients…
… and the root
causes that
typically go
unseen!
“It should not
take weeks to
get this
information!”
Lack of
strategy
Poor data
governance
Over complexity
Lack of
ownership
Poorly integrated
systems
Data &
analytics silos
“We need a single view
of the customer!”
Underinvestment
in data engineering
Culture &
org structure

14. This information is confidential and was prepared by Bain & Company solely for the use of our client; it is not to be relied on by any 3rd party without Bain's prior written consent 14
INSIGHTS
ADOPTION
Incorporate
insights and
prompt
decisions
DATA VIZ AND
DELIVERY
Insights,
Interactive
reports, and
Visualization
DATA
SCIENCE
Talent & tools
Balance
rigor with
complexity
DATA
ENGINEERING
Get the data
right: what,
how, when
Clear strategy
to select and
solve concrete
problems
BUSINESS
CONTEXT
VALUE FROM ANALYTICS AND DATA IS ONLY AS GOOD AS THE
WEAKEST LINK
BEHAVIOR, CULTURE & PROCESS CHANGE

15. HOTEL CO UTILITY CO RETAILER CO

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HOTEL CO’s REVAMPED “ECOSYSTEM” IMPROVED PERFORMANCE,
ADOPTION, AND VALUE
BUSINESS
CONTEXT
DATA
ENGINEERING
DATA SCIENCE
DATA VIZ AND
DELIVERY
• Build collaborative model of engagement between CoE and SteerCo to
ensure alignment among stakeholders and a shared path forward
• Enable dialogue with IT on ongoing requirements to improve hardware
and systems performance (e.g., QA, disk space, memory)
• Improve the efficiency of the model through simplification and increased
automation, improved responsiveness, added discipline
INSIGHTS
ADOPTION
• Foster transparency through formalized communication processes
• Unit leaders own the model impact on unit objectives
• Faster and standardized reporting, frontline metrics
• Sharable materials (e.g., data dictionary, model summaries, validation docs)

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UTILITY CO’s NEW ANALYTICS COUNCIL BROKE ORGANAZION
SILOS TO PRIORITIZE USE CASES AND MONITOR IMPACT
BUSINESS
CONTEXT
DATA
ENGINEERING
DATA SCIENCE
DATA VIZ AND
DELIVERY
• Steering committee identifies and prioritizes use cases and monitors
impact
• Audit of existing and potential data sources across business units
• Deliver Value from combining and adding new data sources
• Pilot “Hub and Spoke” Analytics Council to coordinate and collaborate across
business units
INSIGHTS
ADOPTION
• Deliver code for production models
• Interim dashboards and decision support tools
• Translate model performance and insights into frontline metrics
• Interactive visualizations for validation and common view of “truth”

18. This information is confidential and was prepared by Bain & Company solely for the use of our client; it is not to be relied on by any 3rd party without Bain's prior written consent 18
RETAILER CO NEGOTIATED DOWN SUPPLIER COSTS WITH HIGH
IMPACT VIZUALIZATION TOOLS AND ON-DEMAND METRICS
BUSINESS
CONTEXT
DATA
ENGINEERING
DATA SCIENCE
DATA VIZ AND
DELIVERY
• Drive cost reduction by empowering buyers with new and better information
on SKU performance
• Connect Household transaction data to Buyers’ SKU cost data
• Develop innovative metric to measure SKU substitutability
INSIGHTS
ADOPTION
• Buyers use dashboards before and during negotiations to drive cost savings
• Build dashboards allowing buyers to visualize SKU opportunities and
demonstrate results in supplier negotiations

19. This information is confidential and was prepared by Bain & Company solely for the use of our client; it is not to be relied on by any 3rd party without Bain's prior written consent 19
STRATEGY STILL MATTERS – While data and computational power are increasing,
people and organizations have limited attention and energy – Focus is key
DATA ARCHITECTURE, GOVERNANCE, AND ENGINEERING ARE HIGHLY UNDERVALUED
- Take up more than 50% of the effort and are core to analytics success
COMPLEXITY CAN KILL – not so much in the model itself but in how it affects
processes and decisions
PEOPLE MATTER – for success analytics needs to consider the impacts on employees
and customers
FINAL NOTES
Winning with Big Data is about STRATEGY, CULTURE, ORGANIZATIONAL
CAPABILITIES, and governs the way we implement algorithms…

20. This information is confidential and was prepared by Bain & Company solely for the use of our client; it is not to be relied on by any 3rd party without Bain's prior written consent 20

21. This information is confidential and was prepared by Bain & Company solely for the use of our client; it is not to be relied on by any 3rd party without Bain's prior written consent
DRAFT