Embracing Certainty with Business Analytics during Uncertainties of COVID-19

In these uncertain times, there is one ray of hope that has ushered in positivity and optimism for all types of professionals. It’s business analytics. The scope of business analytics has exceeded all previous trend predictions and expectations during the COVID-19. In an era where people lost jobs due to lockdowns and economic recession, business analysts were hired in large numbers to sustain the demands of the remote workplace and hybrid working conditions.

90% Companies Hired 2 or More Business Analysts in the Last 18 Month

Organizations are adding more business analysts to their hierarchy than ever before. This is happening despite some of the leading hiring forecasters revealing low calling stats for the technology market. Yes, data science jobs enjoyed the status of the world’s sexiest titles and attracted millions of professionals and freshers to gain skills and expertise relevant to the Big Data Engineering and Analytics markets. However, it took less than 18 months to reveal to the world what is the real scope of business analytics in COVID-19 times.

COVID-19 is the world’s largest mass killer and disruptor of the modern era. It has killed more people in the last 6 months alone as HIV AIDs killed in the first 10 years of its detection, and what Malaria killed in 200 years! However, it’s not the death rate alone that has affected our lives. It’s the uncertainties brought in by COVID related lockdowns and restrictions to traveling and socializing that make the world so painful to live in. Take, for example, the job market. According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), 81 million people lost their jobs in the Asia Pacific alone during the first wave of the COVID-19. 30 million of these workers would never make it back to their workplace. Ever! 

World Needs Critical Thinking and Leadership

Business analytics courses are centered around providing not just high quality curriculum on problem solving techniques using mathematical and scientific techniques but also train candidates on soft skills required to deal with real problems that exist on the ground. In an era, where striking a decent conversation with people is valued more than chatting on phone on social media, business analysts derive high quality information from critical thinking questionnaires and interviews to rationally evaluate and put information in order to make human-centric decisions. 

The scope of business analytics goes beyond merely crunching numbers and putting data on the dashboard. It also encompasses the human side of doing business by asking critical questions on the real world problem: 

1. Why is my data analysis important?
2. What is the impact of my India-based analytics research on the malnourished child living in sub-Saharan deserts in Africa?
3. What will happen to the polar bears in the Arctic Circle and in Greenland if my business analytics results fail to cut through the decision making groups?
4. Will my data analytics help bring in the No Carbon revolution faster than what our leaders anticipate?
5. Does any of my business analytics efforts lead to global warming or fund terrorists, or encourage child slavery in any way?

You see there are various ways of evaluating what impact your scope of business analytics really has on the world outside of your reach! 

If we merely think about the job creation aspect of data science, the industry has done fantastically. BAs are joining at entry and mid-management levels across the board and starting to make a real impact on the various operations with high quality data analysis. The recent funding rounds in the industries such as Financial Technologies / Fintech, Blockchain and Crypto, E-commerce, Internet Marketing, Video Advertising, Manufacturing, Robotics and Automation, Education and Online Mentoring, Native governance and Systems management, and Earth conservation prove that business analytics’ scope goes beyond the traditional cycle of product development, strategy management, market positioning, mergers and acquisitions, and competitiveness. Today, largely due to the COVID-19 pandemic and also because of awareness among companies to deliver sustainable digital transformation products, we are witnessing an eco-friendly, humanistic approach to the business analytics – a great step toward sustainable business analysis.

It’s time to embrace the certainty of rational thinking, intelligence, and humanity to make further space for business analytics in times of uncertainty.