It’s Digital Analytics Lab week with Professor Amit Joshi, Marc Chauvet (IMD MBA 2013 / CEO, Alpha Lyrae Consulting). MBAs are getting their hands dirty with Python and other data analytics and visualization tools.
IMD prides itself as being one of the top global business schools that focuses on exposing MBAs to data analytics as a core competence rather than an elective. Digital technologies are reshaping businesses now more than ever. It is therefore of utmost importance to equip MBAs with the required knowledge. This week we are learning to utilize data in creating competitive advantage for businesses or organizations.
We commenced preparation for the Digital Week challenge last week. From hands-on coding moments on Python and visualization with Tableau to lessons on machine learning and artificial intelligence. The Digital Week Challenge involves even more hands-on action, cleaning and analyzing data. 20 teams are battling it out for a grand prize, applying learnings from last week to the project at hand. We get to see our performance on a real-time basis with the leaderboard rankings constantly changing.
Coding is completely new to a lot of us on the program. I am in Group 16 with Max Stevenson, Farina Rosly, Abhishek Jakate and Shruthi Arul. It’s a first-time experience for four of us, but thankfully Shruthi is an expert coder. Her experience has been instrumental to our progress. In addition, the coaches, Amit and Marc are also making the rounds. They frequently check in on the teams, and address concerns and clarifications that we may require.
This is our last study group/project team before the summer break and commencement of the International Consulting Projects. The teams have bonded, learnt, and drawn from each other’s unique strengths. It has also been interesting to watch the impact on leadership dynamics as required competencies for projects change.
I am looking forward to winning this week’s challenge with my group and applying these new skills actively going forward. But regardless of the outcome, I appreciate the exposure to data analytics and the contribution of data scientists in enabling businesses make more intelligent decisions.
