Yudhvir Seetharam

In recent years, the Black Friday sales that have long been a part of the retail landscape in the United States and Canada have steadily gained popularity and traction in many other parts of the world, including South Africa. For most consumers in this country, Black Friday sales are little more than an opportunity to enjoy some great savings and deep discounts on a variety of products. It’s especially useful given the opportunity it presents for consumers to stock up on affordable festive … [Read more...] about Businesses should adopt Black Friday thinking as a permanent part of their business

Post-Covid-19 business success is not about navigating the new normal, it’s about defining it. And data insights are key. Apart from the obvious impact of months of lockdown on business turnover and profitability, one of the biggest challenges that faced organisations during the first few months of Covid-19 was a complete lack of data. The world had never faced a situation quite like this, and given the significant dependence of businesses on data for strategy development and decision … [Read more...] about Defining the New Normal

Dr Yudhvir Seetharam, Head of Analytics, Insights and Research or FNB Business writes: 07 September 2020: While data analytics has gained massive importance as a vital business tool in recent years, it's not exactly a new concept. Some date the beginnings of the formal analysis of data for business use back to the 19th century, with Frederick Winslow Taylor's time management exercises. Others argue that data analysis has been around for as long as businesses have existed, but it just went by … [Read more...] about What the evolution of data analytics can teach us about business success

Data science and experimentation are typically seen as two sides of the same business coin. While this is true to a certain extent, it's a simplistic view that overlooks a number of important nuances in the relationship between the two. The most significant of these is the fact that experimentation within the realm of data analytics can be harnessed in two quite distinct ways depending on what business outcomes are desired. Of course, when the primary desired business outcome is a … [Read more...] about Covid-19 reinforces the value of balancing data science experimentation with business outcomes

By Dr Yudhvir Seetharam, Head of Analytics, Insights and Research: FNB Business There's no doubt that the lessons Covid-19 has taught the world have been plentiful, often painful, but very valuable. The data science function has certainly not been left out when these often-hard lessons have been handed out over the past few months. Fortunately, though, as with every challenging experience, if one is willing to seek the value from it, and use it to drive positive change and transformation, you … [Read more...] about Covid-19 offers valuable lessons for businesses and their data science divisions

There are two common misperceptions about data science that exist in many organisations today, and which are holding them back from unlocking the full value of the discipline for themselves and their customers. The first of these is that data science is all about algorithms, big data, artificial intelligence and machine learning. And the second is that all data scientists are created equal. Allow me, at the outset to dispel these myths. Yes, data science does harness all those seemingly … [Read more...] about Not all data scientists are created equal

18 July 2019: The businesses which will be able to count themselves amongst the most successful in the coming years will be those that have succeeded in fully harnessing the power of data. But while you'd be hard pressed to find many businesses that are not currently building or acquiring systems and technical resources aimed at unlocking the value of data, the same priority does not appear to have been given to embedding data-driven organisational cultures. This failure to focus on culture … [Read more...] about It takes more than technology to unlock the power of data

Despite positive case studies and the increasing uptake of analytical capabilities by large businesses, some SMEs are still sceptical. Yudhvir Seetharam, Head of Analytics for FNB Business demystifies the biggest misconceptions that SMEs hold about data analytics: Big data is a fad – some small businesses are still of the opinion that big data is just a fad that will soon fade away. While the term “big data” may not be as popular now as it was a few years ago, the idea of digitising, … [Read more...] about 5 SME big data myths demystified

Black Friday and Cyber Monday are a consumer sensation in South Africa with businesses giving enormous discounts. Through this they induce a weekend where there is a fever pitched spending frenzy across shopping centres and online platforms countrywide. For businesses to benefit from these two days, there are certain considerations that must be made. Black Friday and Cyber Monday have, since 2014, been a trend that is on an accelerated rise in South Africa. On these two days, the average … [Read more...] about Should You Black Friday?

Analysing data and providing actionable insights from it has become a common phenomenon. Data and analytics, once buzzwords, are now part of mainstream business jargon. The new conundrum with data is knowing what questions to ask to drive business. Without this, analysing data becomes a near impossible exercise. Dr Yudhvir Seetharam, Head of Analytics at FNB Business says it is quite difficult to ascertain the full extent of data usage in South Africa currently, but in general, the pace of … [Read more...] about Companies need to up the pace on data analytics