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Written by Traci Terterian

Wednesday, 04 June 2008

The Statistician at Risk of Becoming a Statistic?

Unless they find ways to expand their roles and increase their value in the business world, the statistician's days may be numbered.

Is the statistician going the way of the travel agent: an increasingly irrelevant occupation? According to a trio of experts in the statistics field, the answer may very well be yes.

In a recent issue of Quality Progress, a panel presents a sobering future for statisticians in the trade magazine's Statistics Roundtable.

The three know their stuff: Ronald Snee is principal of performance excellence and lean Six Sigma initiative leader at Tunnell Consulting; Roger Hoerl is manager of General Electrics' corporate applied statistics lab; and Angela Patterson is member of GE's corporate applied statistics lab and certified Six Sigma Master Black Belt. All hold doctorates in applied statistics.

In the article, "In With the Right Crowd," the trio makes the case that statistics has never been more important in business. They cite four primary reasons for the dramatic advances in statistics and statistical thinking:

Training. Large-scale statistical training as part of quality improvement programs like Six Sigma has spread statistical thinking.
Software. Statistical software enables managers and executives to perform complex statistical calculations on their computers.
Education. College students are increasingly enrolling in general statistics courses, roughly half a million a year in the United States.
WWW. The web places extensive statistical information within anyone's reach.

The downside is that the very reasons statistics has advanced have left the statistician in a precarious footing in the business world. "The statistician and quality professional might become the proverbial middle men who get cut out of these advances," the panel says.

In other words, why pay a statistician when you can get it for free or at a nominal price.

Not all has to be gloom for the statistician, though. The experts offer sound advice on how statisticians can move away from the traditional roles and functions they have played-such as analyzing data and designing experiments-to more active roles in teams or client groups.

How? Statistician, market thyself. This starts by eying virtually every manager in an organization to determine exactly what critical needs those managers have. To that end, the panel urges a change in mind-set: Viewing managers as prospective customers, "not distant end-users of your services."

The marketing strategy the panel proposes falls into three steps.

1. Interviewing managers. By gaining insight into the most pressing issues managers face, the better the chances of making inroads into becoming a valuable commodity. The trio also advises talking to managers' colleagues to gain a better perspective of the challenges and goals.

2. Create value proposition. Simple logic: a thoughtful analysis of what you can offer and at what cost. Here, the authors advise to "underpromise and overdeliver."

3. Develop detailed business case. This should be tailored to a specific manager, the authors advise. The business case should outline "a conservative estimate of the increased returns, level of effort and resources that would be required, and the general timeframe of implementation and financial return." In developing the business, speak the local dialect. They advise statisticians to "couch'" the analysis and recommendations using standard business terms in the manager's business.

Once you've landed on a team, the panel suggests adhering to these principles:

Learn about the subject, issues and business of the client group
Focus on helping people be successful
Provide the best business solution, which might not be the optimal statistical solution.
Promote the scientific method and the effective use of the right data
Move from a consulting mindset to collaborative, leadership mind-set.

With the need for traditional statistical services drying up, it would be wise to develop a career strategy to become an essential agent of the organization. And it doesn't have to by the numbers.

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