data as fuel and analytics as engine of the digital ... partnership...engine of the digital...

Data as Fuel and Analytics asEngine of the Digital Transformation

Demystification, Future Digital Skills and theirImpact on Education at the University of Geneva

Prof. Dr. Diego Kuonen, CStat PStat CSci

Statoo Consulting & GSEM, RCS, University of Geneva, Switzerland

@DiegoKuonen + [email protected] + [email protected]

‘ITU-Academia Partnership Meeting’, Budapest, Hungary — September 19, 2017

About myself (about.me/DiegoKuonen)

� PhD in Statistics, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland.

� MSc in Mathematics, EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland.

• CStat (‘Chartered Statistician’), Royal Statistical Society, UK.

• PStat (‘Accredited Professional Statistician’), American Statistical Association, USA.

• CSci (‘Chartered Scientist’), Science Council, UK.

• Elected Member, International Statistical Institute, NL.

• Senior Member, American Society for Quality, USA.

• President of the Swiss Statistical Society (2009-2015).

. Founder, CEO & CAO, Statoo Consulting, Switzerland (since 2001).

. Professor of Data Science, Research Center for Statistics (RCS), Geneva School of Economics

and Management (GSEM), University of Geneva, Switzerland (since 2016).

. Founding Director of GSEM’s new MSc in Business Analytics program (started fall 2017).

. Principal Scientific and Strategic Big Data Analytics Advisor for the Directorate and Board of

Management, Swiss Federal Statistical Office (FSO), Neuchatel, Switzerland (since 2016).

Copyright c© 2017, Statoo Consulting, Switzerland. All rights reserved. 2

‘In God we trust; all others must bring data.’

W. Edwards Deming


Demystifying ‘big data’: the ‘five Vs’ of (big) data

� ‘Volume’ (‘data at rest’), ‘Variety’ (‘mixed data’) and ‘Velocity’ (‘data in

motion’) are the ‘essential’ characteristics of (big) data;

� ‘Veracity’ (‘trust in data’) and ‘Value’ (‘usefulness of data’) are the

‘qualification for use’ characteristics of (big) data.


‘The data revolution is giving the world powerfultools that can help usher in a more sustainablefuture.’

Ban Ki-moon, eighth Secretary-General of the United Nations, August 29, 2014


‘Data is part of Switzerland’s infrastructure, such asroad, railways and power networks, and is of greatvalue. The government and the economy are obligedto generate added value from these data.’

digitalswitzerland, November 22, 2016

Source: digitalswitzerland’s ‘Digital Manifesto for Switzerland’ (digitalswitzerland.com).


Demystifying the ‘Internet of Things’ (IoT)

• IoT is about data, not things!

The ‘five Vs’ of (IoT) data:


‘Data is rapidly becoming the lifeblood of the globaleconomy. It represents a key new type of economicasset. Those that know how to use it have a decisivecompetitive advantage in this interconnected world ...— often leaving decades-old competitors behind.’

European Political Strategy Centre (EPSC), January 2017

Source: EPSC, Enter the Data Economy: EU Policies for a Thriving Data Ecosystem, EPSC

Strategic Notes, Issue 21, January 11, 2017 (goo.gl/RAeota).


‘Data are not taken for museum purposes; they aretaken as a basis for doing something. If nothing is tobe done with the data, then there is no use incollecting any. The ultimate purpose of taking datais to provide a basis for action or a recommendationfor action.’

W. Edwards Deming, 1942

Data are the fuel and analytics, i.e. ‘learning from data’, is the engine of the

digital transformation and the related data revolution!


• The largest and most basic ‘need’ in the analytics hierarchy is the ‘data pedigree’

(goo.gl/pVYXmj):

Data should be treated as a key strategic asset, so ensuring their veracity

becomes imperative!


• Statistics, (big) data analytics, data science, machine learning and artificial (or

machine) intelligence are aids to thinking and not replacements for it!

They should be envisaged to complement and augment humans, not replacements

for it!

Nowadays, with the digital transformation and the related data revolution, humans

need to augment their strengths to become more ‘powerful’: by automating any

routinisable work and by focusing on their core competences.


Digital skills — ‘Hard and soft skills to work with data’

Source: European Commission, Open Data Maturity in Europe 2016, Figure 32, October 2016 (goo.gl/WPHR54).


‘Digital strategies ... go beyond the technologiesthemselves. ... They target improvements ininnovation, decision making and, ultimately,transforming how the business works.’

Gerald C. Kane, Doug Palmer, Anh N. Phillips, David Kiron and Natasha Buckley, 2015

Source: Kane, G. C., Palmer, D., Phillips, A. N., Kiron, D. & Buckley, N. (2015). Strategy, not technology,

drives digital transformation. MIT Sloan Management Review (goo.gl/Dkb96o).


GSEM’s ‘MSc in Business Analytics’ (started today!)

• Around the unique strengths of different GSEM institutes, i.e. information sciences

(ISI), management (IoM) and statistics (RCS), the GSEM at the University of Geneva

has defined a new master programme as a strategic, long-term initiative.

• Being at the intersection between statistics, data science and management,

business analytics seeks to inform strategic decision making and to optimise

complex organisational processes.

• The ‘MSc in Business Analytics’ (120 ECTS) aims to

� support students to manage, analyse and use data in strategic, tactical and

operational decision making under uncertainty;

� prepare students for an efficient leadership within the digital transformation to

create value for businesses and society;

� bridge the gap between university education and professional needs.


Have you been Statooed & GSEMed?

Prof. Dr. Diego Kuonen, CStat PStat CSci

Statoo Consulting RCS, GSEM, University of Geneva

Morgenstrasse 129 Bd du Pont-d’Arve 40

3018 Berne 1211 Geneva 4

Switzerland

email [email protected] [email protected]

web www.statoo.info gsem.unige.ch/rcs/kuonen

@DiegoKuonen

Code: ‘ITU-Academia.Digital.09.2017/MyPresentation’. Typesetting: LATEX, version 2ε. PDF producer: pdfTEX, version 3.141592-1.40.3-2.2 (Web2C 7.5.6).

Compilation date: 07.09.2017.

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