Analytical skills are not technical skills, they’re thinking skills that every competent manager should master, according to an excellent Kellogg Insight  interview with the university’s marketing faculty director Professor Florian Zettelmeyer

According to Zettelmeyer, managing well with analytics does not require a math genius or master of computer science; instead, it requires “a working knowledge” of data science. This means being able to separate good data from bad, and knowing where precisely analytics can add value.

Zettelmeyer states that analytics is not a separate business practice, it has to be integrated into the business itself.

“It all starts with understanding the data-generation process,” Zettelmeyer says. “You cannot judge the quality of the analytics if you don’t have a very clear idea of where the data came from.”

Zettelmeyer says decision making in the business world is being revolutionized in the same way that healthcare is with the widespread adoption of “evidence-based medicine.” Managers with a working knowledge of data science will have a distinct advantage.

“There has to be a culture where you can’t get away with ‘thinking’ as opposed to ‘knowing.’”