The Deciding Factor

The Power of Analytics to Make Every Decision a Winner

By: Larry E. Rosenberger, Josh Nash

Narrated by: Scott Peterson

In today's high-tech world, all companies are striving to create business value from digital data, but the real value in data comes from how it is used to make decisions. At the end of the day, what drives the results your company achieves is the millions of decisions made every day that are influenced by customer interactions and transactions.

In this groundbreaking book, Larry Rosenberger and John Nash draw on over 50 years of experience in helping companies automate, improve, and connect decisions. Using analytic techniques first pioneered by Fair Isaac Corporation, the authors clearly show how today's forward-thinking executives and managers are using analytic insights to ensure their decisions keep up with information complexity and the pace of change - especially changes in consumer behavior and attitudes, in regulations, and in competitive actions and reactions.

©2009 Larry E. Rosenberger, John Nash (P)2009 Gildan Media Corp

Fiar Isaac sould be the title of this book

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

Be prepared to lean more about FICO scores and how businesses use them as The Deciding Factor than you ever wanted to know. The first seven sentences of each chapter are worth writing down. Beyond that the words Fair Isaac and FICO are repeated endlessly. Yes, many big and successful companies have used FICO scores to change the way they do business. Rosenberger and Nash seem to believe that those example companies uses the Fair Isaac consulting and FICO scores to, in some way - never really made clear - improve their business. For example, apparently, Paris Hiltons father made a mess of the Carte Blanche credit card they created. With Fair Isaac's help, it became less of a mess before the media revealed that it was a mess. I'm not familiar with the details, but the implication is that it was eventually a failure in the end. Good thing Paris' dad hired Fair Isaac. I believe that FI balance sheet has fared much better than Carte Blanche. I guess Hilton corp. survived without too much impact.

The bottom line is that the book is one of the bigger wates of time I've experienced in the past couple hundred books I've listened to. If you need to know how better to use credit scores 10 to 20 years ago, this is the book for you. If you are a business owner, entrepreneur trying to grow your business, this is a WASTE OF TIME.

Narrator is very good.

What could Larry E. Rosenberger and Josh Nash have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

More accurate title, PLEASE! I had no opinion of FICO or Fair Isaac prior to listening to this. Now, I think you protest too much.

What does Scott Peterson bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Very clear and understandable presentation. I like the cadence. THe narrator sold me on this book during the sample.

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

This is a disappointment!

Any additional comments?

Please make it clear in the summary that this is a commercial for Fair Isaac.

An interesting guide.

The book brings to mind a complete description from early stages of analytics usage within the enterprises and public organizations to recent cases of companies that take advantage of advanced tools and techniques of information management for the expansion and improvement of business.

I recommend for those seeking a general understanding of the context of the use of this management model but it is limited to the purpose of a more technical (how to do) approach.

A Shallow Treatment

This book is written by two executives from the Fair Isaac Corporation, made famous by the FICO (credit) score.

While I found some of the history and story compelling, most of the book was full of descriptions of the customers they served, the goals, a very shallow explanation of what was done, and the results that were obtained. Long on self congratulations and short on explicit details of what went into the project making it successful.

If you're a serious student of business intelligence, data mining, machine learning, operations research, or other "hard science" and mathematics approaches to business operations, you'll find this disappointing.

eyes opener

An datas underworld is emerging, a world were numbers and datas are shared at a speed of light and where decisions can be taken not just with the help of graduated MBA like myself but with datas , integrated in the decision with algorithm and customers buying habits, it is an easy listen , even if i found the beginning hard, but your mind quickly plays catch up...

For analytics people, this is a must read

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

This is a business book about the truly emerging field of analytics and how it has gone from that high and mighty world to being used operationally by most employees.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Deciding Factor?

Moment, how about part - the point about rule management providing agility to a business to see a change in course is necessary while in motion, instead of after you finish the race.

Which character – as performed by Scott Peterson – was your favorite?

n/a

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

no

Any additional comments?

I bought the hard copy so I could use it for reference, that is tough to do with a audio book