Matthew R. Bice, PhD
Dean, School of Professional & Graduate Studies
MBA in Data Analytics: A Degree in High Demand
About
Today’s organizations are driven by data. With digital transformation driving all areas of business, a plethora of information now exists to help leaders make educated decisions about important issues ranging from operations to new-product launches.
From hospitals to hospitality environments, organizations are under constant pressure to innovate and do more with less. There’s little room for error or second-guessing if you want to maintain a competitive edge.
This data comes from all kinds of sources—from customer surveys and customer relationship management (CRM) systems to purchasing and selling activities. To someone who doesn’t understand how to interpret and extract value from this data, the numbers may not mean much.
To someone with an MBA in analytics, however, this data tells stories. It holds the key to solving big business problems with confidence. It provides full insight into what’s happening in every corner of a business.
To meet the need for experts who can use practical tools to uncover the insights hidden in data, Baker University unveiled data analytics as a new MBA concentration area. The MBA in Data Analytics program is designed to teach you how to apply data analytics to solve business problems.
What You Can Do With an MBA in Data Analytics
- Collect, clean, and interpret data to answer a question or solve a problem.
- Build models and use existing information to make accurate predictions about the future.
- Identify the potential or demand for new opportunities.
- Discover connections between seemingly disparate pieces of information.
- Find patterns that act as indicators of what’s to come.
The Value of a Data Analytics Master’s Degree
When someone inside an organization asks a question that needs to be answered with data, where do they go to find the answer? How long does it take to find the answer? How many sources do they have to check with before they get the information they need?
Earning an MBA in analytics can prepare them to help organizations answer these kinds of critical questions faster so they can make data-driven decisions.
Baker’s MBA in Data Analytics develops objective data practitioners who are comfortable using business intelligence, data visualization, and other statistical tools to grapple with real-world management problems.
With an online MBA in Data Analytics, you’ll be able to bring value to organizations in many ways:
- Apply data science and information system principles and skills to help leaders make informed and objective decisions.
- Develop meaningful reports and visualizations of business data so others can understand what it reveals.
- Articulate forecasting using predictive models for real-world analytical applications.
- Apply statistics programming languages and big data tools to manage information.
- Transform big data coming from various platforms and applications into relatable contexts for problem-solving and business solutions.
Fields That Rely on Experts With Data Analytics Master’s Degrees
Because almost every industry generates data every day, the demand for the expertise that an online MBA in Data Analytics can bring is high.
Here are just a few examples of how data analytics master’s degrees are being used in various fields.
Retail. Graduates with an online MBA in Data Analytics can help retailers use data to offer customized shopping recommendations based on previous purchases, personalize the shopping experience, find the right price point for a specific service, understand buying trends based on certain demographics or times of the year, identify sudden drops in sales, and determine the demand for a new product.
Media and entertainment. With an MBA in Data Analytics, you can help companies that create movies, music, games, and other types of entertainment better predict and respond to what consumers expect. The information you uncover can be used to personalize content recommendations based on viewing history, identify trending topics and subjects, measure the performance of content, and provide insight into customer churn.
Health care. Hospitals, medical clinics, and long-term-care facilities are swimming in data that professionals with an MBA in Data Analytics can use to boost patient engagement, improve health outcomes, predict and prevent hospital readmissions, detect anomalies in scans, predict illness outbreaks, optimize staff schedules based on busy periods, and even develop new therapies and health care innovations.
Construction. Contractors and construction companies are finding value in using the data at their disposal to maximize workforces and improve quality. Professionals who earn an MBA in Data Analytics can help these organizations automate tasks, find and eliminate inefficiencies, predict possible safety risks, create and submit accurate bids, predict profitability on a specific project, and gauge demand for new types of services.
Comparing an MBA in Data Analytics With an MBA in Finance
What can you do with a data analytics master’s degree that you can’t with an MBA in Finance?
A program focused on finance will be heavily involved in preparing you to ensure the financial health of an organization.
You’ll learn how to manage a variety of finance-related tasks:
- Create and evaluate financial reports
- Direct investment activities
- Develop plans for an organization’s long-term financial goals
- Project profits
- Create and manage budgets
- Find ways to minimize costs and maximize profits
Studying finance as a concentration area will make you a valued member of an organization’s finance or accounting team.
Choosing an MBA in analytics expands beyond the world of finance, allowing you to work with numbers and data that come from all areas of a business. This information can be used to make decisions across the organization, whether they involve IT systems, personnel and processes, product launches, marketing campaigns, or other areas of the business.
Your work could help explain what’s happening (and why), make predictions about what’s likely to happen in the future, and what should be done to drive specific results.
If you want to help organizations learn how to use the data they have to make better, more informed decisions, then an MBA in data analytics may be exactly what you’re looking for. Learn more about Baker’s online MBA program and our other MBA concentration areas.