Three ways the art of data analytics is like playing blackjack

One of the biggest challenges data chiefs like myself face is explaining the benefits of the work we do, so a universally-recognized card game like blackjack is a good starting point.

More specifically, I often think of the art of data analytics in business as like a person counting cards at a blackjack table. Here are three key reasons

 1.    The long game

Business analytics is often seen in black and white terms: a process that produces an immediate ‘yes’ or ‘no’ result.

This, I believe, is a mistake.

Similarly, blackjack revolves around ‘stick’ or ‘twist’ commands, but what’s shown on the cards in front of you reveals much greater levels of shifting complexity.

The best blackjack players count cards: keeping track mentally of the proportion of high and low cards in the deck.

It’s a neat strategy that promises healthy returns and upsets casino owners.

But it’s not an approach that’s good for making a quick buck: it takes patience, consistency, and, perhaps most importantly, stamina.

You won’t get every call right. You’re not going to make two big plays and cash out.

Instead, your advantage and winnings build up slowly over time and, crucially, you have to learn to trust the method and exercise good judgment – even when you’re losing money.

Data analytics is the same. It’s as much about accruing information and learning from decision to decision as it is the day-to-day wins.

2.    Trusting the numbers

The COVID-19 pandemic has heightened the pressure and need for quick decision-making – but also long-term thinking.

It’s not easy, particularly given the levels of uncertainty clouding almost every aspect of life. But combining the right data and human judgment is proving critical to making better decisions faster.

The businesses emerging most successfully have realized that it’s better to make a small-scale wrong decision and learn from it, adapting quickly for next time, than it is to stall and up the stakes for a bigger, more costly error further down the line.

For many, this has shown up a need for more and better (or at least, cleaner) data. This is a hangover from periods of ‘analysis paralysis’ in which businesses, unable to trust the data or properly interpret they wanted to base decisions on, would be stuck in protracted periods of indecision.

More often than not, people have opted to trust their gut in the moment – rather than the data and the long game.

In part, this is because a lot of the data businesses gather has historically not been reliable enough to inform decisions – and a lot of that distrust still lingers despite huge improvements in the field.

We already trust data analytics to keep airplanes in the sky, protect our bank accounts, and prevent terrorists and organized criminals from siphoning off funds for their activities.

So why not other aspects of our business operations?

I see these realizations as an opportunity to lay a foundation for long-term future strategies that have data at their heart and place analytics and insights team in the frontline of operations. It doesn’t matter that it took a pandemic for organizations to realize what a mess their data is in.

3.    No longer gambling

The thing I like most about this blackjack analogy – if you’ll allow me to entertain it a little longer – is that when a player counts cards they’re no longer gambling.

They’re playing the same game as everyone else at the table, but they’re actively diminishing the risk they’re exposing themselves to.

If you want to leave a weekend in Vegas on the up, then a card counter makes a fine companion.

I feel the same way – biased perhaps! – about data analytics chiefs.

But unlike card counters, who must act surreptitiously, it’s our job to advocate for our practice and to educate as many about its benefits as possible.

We need to embed ourselves at the frontline of business operations.

This is a culture shift as much as anything – something we’ve all experienced plenty of this year. Time for one more hand?

Take a look at Genpact’s AI 360 report for more insights on how to win with AI in business