To Spreadsheet Hell and Back As a former controller, chief accountant and auditor, I've had my share of spreadsheets. I figuratively and literally felt the heat of crashing files, endless calculations, plugs and shameful errors. But beyond the drama which repeated itself at every closing, planning or reporting cycle, I could feel a [...]
Oops, I did it again: another data/pregnancy story Last week, my niece came to me with an advertising mail: a parenting insurance promotion for Gerber Life Insurance had just been sent to her, a sixteen-year-old girl, encouraging her to plan for her "little one's future." I contacted Gerber to learn more about the [...]
Systems don't Create Data Silos, People do! Silos are the trolls of analytic projects. Although we hope to see information seamlessly flowing and connecting, to give us that 360° holistic view on our business, we find that the landscape often ends up with data that simply don’t make sense. Our first reaction [...]
Data and Change Management Gauthier Vasseur of Stanford University - Continuing Studies discusses Big Data, Data Governance and human behavior on Collibra University
Want to Ditch Spreadsheets? Become Data Savvy Gauthier Vasseur has held many roles in his career: auditor, controller, marketer, strategist, to name several. These days, though, he’s probably best known as an educator -- he lectures on data science at Stanford University and in organizations around the world. His goal is to [...]
For the past 5 years, women have represented a growing proportion of my Stanford data class, consistently hitting 50% and above since 2015. Female students made up 55% of my last course at SciencesPo in France this year I did not notice this trend until Rachel Delacour, CEO of BIME, pointed out the balance [...]
We’re familiar with the adage, “a picture is worth a thousand words.” But in Finance and Treasury, we are people of numbers. If colors and shapes made it to reports, it is purely for cosmetic reasons. What matters are the cold hard facts. Flashiness could hurt the credibility of a presented study; more time on [...]
In data, admitting ‘I don’t know’ is a powerful thing. This admission opens all the possible doors in our search for an answer. Too often, we clutter and fog our approach and reduce the realm of possibilities with elements that come way too early in the process. First comes experience—yes it’s an asset in funneling [...]
What are the necessary human qualities to become data-driven? My students often ask for specific examples as we dive deeper into the quarter. As they discover the data domain through my 10 week course, they become motivated and want to make sure they are doing the right thing for their career. In an era flooded [...]
Four years ago, Havard Business Review wrote that Everybody wanted to be one, everybody claimed to be one. It had become the unbeatable pick-up line at trendy Silicon Valley venues. I have always resisted calling myself so; not because I wanted to differ from the trend, nor did I want to play the false-humility card, [...]
