Top Reasons to Hire Data Scientists

Vikas Agarwal

Data Analytics

What data scientists can do for you? They can let you make quick and better decisions so that you remain not just relevant but at the top in your niche. Let’s explore this article further to understand the reasons why we need to hire data scientists in our organization.

A data scientist understands how to manage large data that is generated in the business & how to go about extracting meaningful insights from such complex sets of data. They utilize novel statistical, mathematical and machine learning techniques to come up with conclusions. These conclusions are adept at transforming the raw data that your business collects into valuable data assets; your business can benefit from in a number of ways.

A recent report released by McKinsey Global Institute states that the successful analysis of data has the power to aggravate the GDP or Gross Domestic Product by $325 bn by the close of this decade. Successful data analysis especially in manufacturing & retail establishments can potentially transform the economies of the world! Data scientist comes with specific skill sets to bring in the transformation into your organization.

What is the role of a data-scientist vis-a-vis businesses?

Data Scientist are new breed of experts in analytics. These roles have found prominence in the light of the rise of big data. They are able to read, understand and interpret complex data to solve business problems in a jiffy! They identify what issues need to be addressed in the first place.

A Data scientist is partly statistician, partly programmer and partly analyst. They are experts in their domain. They collate huge data sets to come up with meaningful predictions for your business and its value proposition.

Though their job is to analyse complex data problems however they do much more than this. Data scientist can perform what your software can’t. They are experts who can read in between the lines. Once they perform a certain specific programming to get to the meaningful data, they then use a whole world of intuitive tools and strategies to gain meaningful information. Data Scientist know the statistical techniques that’ll work, tools and their implications and how to use the resulting data in gaining meaningful insights for the business.

They understand the pulse of the consumers. They understand market and industry behaviour. They support business expansion by aiding decision making and forecasting through scientific information. Business is able to act promptly to industry, consumer demands and trends. They provide insights to marketing and other areas of business decision making. They can deliver new perspectives, bringing about conversations around data and information.

Why do you need to hire a Data Scientist?

Today data is arguably the most valued resources that we have. A data scientist knows how to use this properly. There was a time when data was just an afterthought within organizations, however gone are those days! Digital world has brought in immense transformation and now is the age of data and information. The world is slowly transforming to data culture where every decision is based upon relevant data. Data is required to make decisions. It is the analysis, creative intervention and specific skills of data scientists that could revolutionize the way businesses are being operated.

Your business will drive an understanding of what data is relevant for you however it may include every data point starting from consumer behaviour to complex polls and scans. Data scientist have the prowess to work magic with the data to take organizations to the next level.

Listing down some of the

Top reasons for you to employ the expertise of Data Scientists

Monetizing your Data:
Instagram/ LinkedIn/ Facebook and the social networks we know monetizes the data that they collect from their users. Every business has the opportunity to do so. For example, if your business has repeat customers for a particular item, they are likely to be buying another complementing item repeatedly. Data Scientist can identify these trends and provide valuable insights herewith.
Identify potential competitors and risk associated with it
One of the tasks that data scientists perform is to understand the ‘client churn’ patterns. This helps business to respond proactively rather than reactively if in case the trend persists for your consumers to favor your competitors’ products and services than yours. To gain back your consumers you can take the right steps at the right time by churning our offers or deals to win them back.
Another responsibility of data scientist is to analyze the data of other businesses that you are possibly partnering with. This will minimize the risk many folds. Data scientist can analyze the information that is shared by third party vendors, you are considering teaming up with. This analysis can help you understand the credit worthiness of their business.
Understanding the pulse of your consumers
The behavior of consumers may shift over a period of time and it may get difficult to monitor such behavior without the intervention of data science. For example, Airbnb, that allows travelers and hosts to find/ rent housing spaces in travel destinations very recently reviewed their consumers behavior at the time of website searches. It immediately changed its algorithm to serve more customized and relevant information /deals to its customers. Over time both reservations and bookings increased. These kinds of insights the data scientists able to uncover to improve your business model.
Gaining unique insights
Data scientist are able to come up with unique evaluations. For example, in winters the sale of Vicks increases many folds. If this is the case the medical stores and pharmacies were likely to place this item strategically within their counters to increase the sales. It can however be difficult but not impossible for you to come up with these creative insights on your own. Data scientist can save valuable time and resources in this regard.
It was never this easy to attempt business expansion
With the insights from data scientist business may be able to uncover newer regions or demographics or markets that may have keen interests in your products or services. Your advertising campaign may also generate these insights however data scientist may be able to review the insights to determine the new customer interests and hence you can tweak your future campaigns accordingly. Data Scientists can identify new trends and in which direction the business inventory is likely to flow to make sound future predictions.
Improving future forecast
Data scientists can mine your company’s data making use of the neutral networks and machine learnings. Most of the data scientists have expertise in both these areas of to make predictions for the future. For example, an automobile repair business can identify spikes in consumer visits over several months to be able to write precise schedules and orders summary.
Data makes objective business decisions
Data can speak for itself and with objective, solid data business owners are empowered to make objective decisions rather than subjective judgements. There is no scope for emotional or prejudiced decision making. If tendency to do a thing similarly year on year or egos are coming in the way of making decisions, Data Science can provide immense relief and support here.
Being at the core of data driven decision making
Business when adopt a data driven approach to decision making, the Data Scientist are at the core to the sustenance of the long run decisions. The data scientist working on your team will support you to make the best of the objective decisions and the next best action item.

Albeit all the reasons as to why businesses are inclined to hire data scientists, it is integral for us to hire the right Data Scientist.

How do we go about hiring the right Data Scientist?

There are two types of data scientists, the creative thinkers and the analysts. Some data scientists do very well with analysing the data in-depth and coming up with insightful detailed reports. These reports empower key decision makers in the organization to make informed decisions. While the other set of data scientists are the driving force behind the decisions with their data centric knowledge and creative thought process to suggest innovation. What qualities are you looking for in your data scientist depends hugely on your business goals and company dynamics.

However, there are some common traits that you can look out for.

It’ll be a plus if the candidates have a background in business intelligence and analytics
They must have made data driven decisions that are insightful and presentable
They should be able to communicate their ideas with the team within your organization
They should be able to translate their data point findings into workable business practices
The candidate should be detail oriented
They should be adaptable, flexible, patient and creative. With the technologies changing every now and then, Data Scientists are expected to have these qualities
Data scientists should be able to identify their stakeholders for each of the project they work for.
Data scientist are the problem solvers however they should also be able to identify the issues across organization.

Conclusion

We are living in a data driven world. Isn’t the reason enough for organizations to hire data scientists! If you look around, what do you think you’ll first notice or something that’s everywhere no matter national or global boundaries? Computers, Tablets, Laptops, Smart Phones and all the fancy gadgets! By using all of these devices we are generating enormous chunk of data every day.

While we tweet or share a post on Instagram, we are creating huge data we aren’t aware of. This data is the big data in its complex form. Data Scientists harness the power of data and use it to identify newer opportunities. Even if you are not making data driven decisions right now, you’ll however choose to do that in future. This is simply because that’s how our technology world functions and to stay relevant, we need to keep up with the shifting demands of our times. With the intel that data scientist equips organizations with, we are able to make smarter business moves, generate higher revenues, set up efficient processes and have more happier customers. Explore more about data science with GrowExx. You can talk to us or explore some of our blogs to gain clarity.

Vikas Agarwal

Vikas Agarwal is the Founder of GrowExx, a Digital Product Development Company specializing in Product Engineering, Data Engineering, Business Intelligence, Web and Mobile Applications. His expertise lies in Technology Innovation, Product Management, Building & nurturing strong and self-managed high-performing Agile teams.