Analytics is statistics at speed. While MBA programs require statistics coursework, analytics is still an up and comer in the hallowed halls. But you don’t need to be a data scientist to develop and use analytics. That is what FICO set out to prove this spring with the launch of the FICO Academic Engagement Program and there' no better group to approach than MBA students.
Yesterday, FICO hosted six San Diego State University MBA students who participated in a semester-long program where they used FICO’s Decision Management tools (FICO® Analytic Modeler Scorecard Pro and FICO® Analytic Modeler Decision Tree Pro) through the FICO® Analytic Cloud. They were joined by several FICO executives in a roundtable discussion about their experience using FICO’s analytic development tools and their feedback was overwhelming positive.
Steven Felger, a second year MBA student, summed it up best when he said, “FICO Analytic Modeler Scorecard Professional and Decision Tree Professional were challenging at first, but it paid off and we now have a great software product to keep in mind as future managers and analysts”.
This is exactly the outcome FICO was hoping for. At FICO we believe you don’t need to be a data scientist to develop and use analytics. In fact, the opposite is true. Our goal is to make analytics accessible, understandable and useful for the business analytics professional.
Doug Clare, vice president of product management said, “Through this program, we’re helping ensure that the next generation of business leaders is fluent with fundamental analytics concepts, tools and business applications”.
The FICO Academic Engagement Program was designed to complement MBA Business Analytics courses by providing students with the opportunity to work with large datasets and apply the advanced statistical techniques they are learning in class to real-world business problems.
Overall, the students feel confident they can walk into any job interview knowing they have practical, real-world experience to interpret and present their results to support business decisions.
The success of our first academic engagement has generated a lot of interest and we are expecting to engage with several universities for the Fall Semester. Thanks to all the SDSU students who participated in our program. They all worked very hard and came away with a greater sense of confidence in their analytic abilities, hands-on experience with leading-edge analytics development tools, as well as new relationships within the FICO organization they can utilize in the future.
