If you have picked up a newspaper, logged onto Twitter or watched the news in the last week, chances are you have heard the term “big data” at least once. While this buzzword has tremendous implications for organizations spanning the globe, it also represents a great opportunity for those looking for an exciting career path. So, why is big data such a big deal?
A Universal Need
The ability to harness insights from large data sets is needed across industries, functions and geographies. From the smallest nonprofit to Fortune 100 companies and governmental agencies, a better understanding of the customer through business analytics drives profitability, innovation and customer service. Synthesizing big data helps nonprofits communicate impact to stakeholders, retail organizations identify their most profitable customers and products, and governments understand the impact of policies at the macro and micro levels.
According to a recent VentureBeat article, organizations in many industries are leveraging big data in innovative ways, including: predicting customer needs, getting customers excited about their own data, improving customer service, identifying customer pain points, and reducing health care costs And big data is merely in its infancy. The global research organization Markets and Markets believes the rapidly expanding big data market will be worth $46 billion by 2018.
Shortage of Talent
Despite the huge demand for them, there’s a dearth of data-savvy managers and executives. According to a recent McKinsey Global Institute report, the U.S. alone faces a shortage of 140,000 to 190,000 individuals with deep business-analytics skills and an additional shortfall of 1.5 million managers with the knowledge and training to lead data-aware organizations.
The College of Business at Oregon State is committed to equipping a new generation of managers with the combination of general business acumen and data analysis skills required to lead in this new frontier. The recently launched MBA in Business Analytics is an intensive program taught by top faculty with a combination of academic and professional expertise in the field of data analysis. The program can be completed by full-time students with a business background in as little as nine months. Students do coursework in data analysis, exploration, mining, visualization and advanced information systems, in addition to taking a core sequence of business courses.
Drop me a line to talk more about careers in this growing field.
Brian Precious is the MBA Program Director at Oregon State University. He can be reached at: OSUMBA@OregonState.edu.
