September 20, 2012, 4:54 PM — If you think that your organization lacks the skills it needs to give birth to a successful predictive analytics initiative, take heart from the words of Dr. Spock, the famous baby doctor, say data mining experts. Trust yourself. You know more than you think you do.
You don’t need a data scientist to succeed with predictive analytics, and you don’t have to have a deep understanding of data mining. But you may need a little help to get started.
That’s the consensus of practitioners like Anthony Perez, director of business strategy at The Orlando Magic. “The folks that put together the models here all have MBAs. We don’t have anyone who’s a statistician,” he says. On the other hand, everyone understands how to do regression analysis and they are all Excel power users. And do get training, he advises. His team spent time learning the ins and outs of tools from SAS.
