Today’s Guest Post comes from Charles Render, whose analytics firm (render-consulting.com) works with client organizations of all sizes, leveraging big data to optimize their businesses.
During these unprecedented times, data analytics and data visualization experts have a unique opportunity to measure the magnitude of the Coronavirus’ impact on the business world. The “big data” trend that has taken off the last decade has not been around long enough to experience a world-defining event such as this, and this storytelling opportunity is too good to pass up for data scientists. Data visualization is not just about giving answers; it is also about presenting the opportunity to ask new questions we have not yet thought to ask.
For example, which companies/industries are benefiting from quarantining and people staying home? Uber Eats, a food delivery service, has experienced a spike in Google searches while OpenTable, a restaurant reservation service, has dropped to almost no traffic.
Which stocks could rise while the rest of the market is struggling? Are there any companies that may get a free increase in stock share as a result of having the right name? After many investors mistook Zoom Technologies (stock ticker ZOOM) for Zoom Video Communications (stock ticker ZM) during a rise in the latter’s popularity amidst COVID-19, Zoom Technologies’ stock price surged about 318% in 8 days.
These are just two examples of the data visualization tools that are discussed in Module G (Applying Analytics to Big Data in Operations Management) of your OM text.