Poker is a game that requires complex decision-making in order to be successful. Should I play this hand? How much should I bet? Can I call my opponent’s bluff? In the Ted Talk linked below, Liv Boeree applies the main aspects of poker decision-making (luck, quantification, and intuition) to everyday life. The three components of decision-making can be applied to one’s professional career as well. 

Like poker, management positions in the IT field require strong decision making. How can we become more profitable? Which platform should we invest in? Who should we let go? These three example problems can be analyzed using Boeree’s decision-making components respectively. First, we have luck. Has our company’s success been lucky up to this point? If so, the company may require some major changes to ensure long-term growth. Next, we have quantification. In order to know which platform to invest in, we must first understand the costs and benefits associated with each option. Is there a greater expected return with option 1 than option 2? Finally, we have intuition. Letting people go can be the hardest decision a manager has to make, which is why it cannot be left up to a “gut” feeling. Data must be utilized to make the best decision for the company and minimize any room for error. 

What every successful business leader has in common is the ability to make decisions effectively. By mastering these three components, budding MIS professionals can enhance their impact on an organization and ensure a successful career path in the long run. 

The Ted Talk can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nisSeC81u2M

Link

Today I will be discussing an article titled “How big data has changed politics.” This article is from cio.com. I found this article extremely interesting. Although this article is about the world of politics, a hot topic in today’s American society, it offers an excellent industry to analyze the technological tools used during a political campaign. Every time a politician begins campaigning, there are new technological tools that can be utilized that can grant that politician a competitive edge. In the case of this article, Kevin Rands, the author, writes how Big Data is utilized to influence how a politician wins an election. It is not just the data that aids a politician, but how that data is interpreted and then utilized for the campaign. The use of Big Data goes farther than just the campaign. It can, and is, utilized while that person is in office in order to determine what is going on in the areas that person represents if there are any problems, as well as any possible solutions to those problems. Depending on who you, ask Big Data in politics can either be a good thing or a bad thing. However, it is a definite requirement for all politicians to utilize if they want to be successful.  Big Data is becoming more useful as people understand how to utilize it, and it is moving into every aspect of our lives. I think this raises an important question to consider – “Will there ever be too much data collected about a person that would cause a change in the way we interact online or cause a change in how much data is “legally” allowed to be harvested?” If our politicians use it to understand and help us, then there are people out there that could gather data to harm us.

 

For some, making a decision can be anxiety-inducing. For others, decision-making spurs excitement. Metrics are meant to offer a way to make decisions easier to make, or more successful on average. However, this is only possible if the correct measures are being used, as well as in the correct context. This poses an issue because the amount of data being collected has been rising exponentially, and the context for this data becomes confusing if the person analyzing it does not know what they are doing. This brings up the question of how useful data can be in our every day lives, especially when viewed in the context of who is analyzing it. For those who struggle with making a decision, does additional data provide clarity, or does it only cloud the picture further and exacerbate the decision-maker’s issue. Alternatively, for someone who is usually confident in decision-making, does more data help strengthen their resolve, or introduce doubt? Should one group use their intuition more than the other? Is one group more likely to have success in the long-run? Ironically, data on the predispositions of decision-makers may enable a better analysis of the data itself. Does it make any difference, and how would this be quantified, recorded, measured, and applied? Is it something that should be considered in teams where individuals have to make decisions that influence everyone? All of these are things that can be evaluated about the analysis of data.

 

Source:

The Beauty and Perils of Data 

I purchased a book upon a recommendation from a colleague, “How to Measure Anything in Cybersecurity Risk” because of my interest in cybersecurity and the impacts on different IT projects. The idea of how we measure risk or success in business seems so arbitrary to me. I want to understand what the big deal is with assigning a number or a metric to everything and why is it so important? Every business course I’ve taken references financial ratios at some point in the semester and the MIS courses reinforce the importance of KPI’s and SMART objectives. Coincidentally, one of the articles assigned this week was also written by the author of this Cybersecurity book, Douglas Hubbard. After reading the articles assigned for this course so far and the case analysis on Cirque du Soleil, it became apparent to me that it must be accountability. How are IT professionals held accountable? It seems that finding a way to measure the “intangibles” allows companies to measure the value add of IT professionals independently from the necessity and performance of our systems and hardware. It is easy to blame our problems on bad technology but when you start measuring success and risk in IT, you can start holding people accountable. So what are some of the top reasons to hold people accountable in business and more specifically IT?

Everything is Measurable speaks about the ways to go about measuring the value of an IT department. It describes that unlike a department like Accounting, IT is much more difficult to value especially because its budget seems to increase and the common assumption is that it is unmeasurable. The writer states “How often do IT execs conduct simple random samples or controlled experiments in order to measure some quantity of interest? The answer is not nearly so often as in other fields including other areas of business. If I may be so bold, perhaps the problem is that Computer Science is not really taught as an empirical method like other sciences.” This offers the idea that IT can be measured by treating it like other departments and measurements similar to other departments.  My question of “is everything measurable?” translates into terms closer to ” is everything measurable the same way?”. I believe IT stands on its own, we don’t have a simple means of measurement even through controlled experiments compared to others. If we are to be measured for our value we should be given a fair measurement tool unique to us that accurately depicts our value. 

Sources:

https://www.cio.com/article/2438921/it-organization/everything-is-measurable.html

 

Apple CEO Steve Jobs was known for his presentation skills and ability to make company products look magical. This was sometimes called ‘Steve Jobs reality distortion field‘.

Take a careful look at Apple iPhone launch and related analysis of Steve Jobs presentation techniques. What do you think: was Steve just a great presenter or is there some other things that may have contributed to his reputation? Anything Steve could/should have done differently? What do you think about the analysis of Steve’s presentation techniques below (second link)?

video we watched in class : https://youtu.be/wGoM_wVrwng

About blog posting during the course