ONE

Analytics or Die

THIS CHAPTER WILL TALK ABOUT:

Why analytics? Because you can’t depend on chance.

What is analytics?

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Circuit City,1 a dominant big box electronic retailer in the United States, grew throughout the 1980s and 1990s, as it established an empire of stores in strategic locations from coast to coast. In August 2008, Circuit City’s biggest rival, Best Buy, reported increased sales and a quarterly profit of $200 million. That same quarter, Circuit City reported a loss of $239 million.2 On March 9, 2009, Circuit City shuttered the last of its 567 retail stores.

The magic had ended. But what had happened?

In the late 1990s, growth ...

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