How far does the Driehaus College of Business alumni network extend? You’ll find alumni working in Chicago and around the world, in the office down the hall and in the c-suite, in traditional corporations and entrepreneurial ventures. The following graphic illustrates our alumni network reach in numbers:
Name: LaToya M. Lacey, CPA, CFE (BUS ’01)
Residence: Stamford, Conn.
Occupation: Director of Global Audit & Risk at Diageo, a premium drinks business with brands that span spirits, beer and wine. In this role, I am responsible for conducting and leading advisory reviews and internal audits, including assessment of overall risk management activities. I also lead the anti-fraud agenda within the Global Audit & Risk group at Diageo.
Education: A family friend suggested I consider a degree in accounting since math was my favorite subject. I took an accounting course during my senior year at Morgan Park High School and enjoyed it. I decided to pursue my degree at DePaul because of its excellent accounting program and because I was really impressed with the school after attending the open house.
Vital stats: During my time at DePaul, I worked in the law school’s admissions office and held two internships at Arthur Andersen and one at Abbott Laboratories. After graduation, I accepted a position at Abbott in their Financial Professional Development Program and subsequently worked in their U.S. Customs Compliance group. I left Abbott to join the Internal Audit department at Altria and went to Kraft Foods as a result of the spinoff. At Kraft, I worked in internal audit, finance training and special investigations. I have an 18-year-old son who plans to obtain a pharmaceutical sciences degree at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
What I like best about my job: Over the past two years, no two assignments have been the same. I really enjoy the constant changes and challenges, and the opportunities I have to change the way we work. I also enjoy traveling all over the world and working with people with diverse backgrounds and perspectives.
My DePaul experience: I was a full-time student, a student officer and mentor in STARS (Students Together Are Reaching Success, a DePaul support program for first-year students). I also worked part time while being a single mom, and I graduated with honors. My experience at DePaul taught me the importance of time management and that with determination and hard work, I can overcome any obstacle. That has helped me tremendously with various challenges
I have experienced both personally and professionally.
“Embrace and overcome challenges, rather than run from them, and learn from mistakes. These experiences will prepare you for a bright future.”
“Find what truly motivates you and pursue that in your career. This will allow you to have the energy to always give your best and drive for more.”
“Expand your horizons as much as possible. When you have the opportunity to work in another part of the world, learn about the economy, culture and history.”
“Balance is important, so don’t forget to have fun and enjoy time with those closest to you.”
Name: Joe Adams (BUS ’77, MBA ’79)
Residence: Carol Stream, Ill.
Occupation: Managing partner and CEO of McGladrey LLP, the fifth largest assurance, tax and consulting firm in the United States and the largest focused on middle market businesses and the entrepreneurs who run them. Accounting Today recognized Adams as one of its “Top 100 Most Influential People in Accounting” in 2013.
Education: Adams attended St. Joseph’s High School in Westchester, Ill., before becoming a DePaul Double Demon. “My brother attended DePaul, and he was the primary influence on my choice to attend DePaul and to pursue an undergraduate degree in accounting. I also wanted to stay close to home to be able to work and earn the money to pay for my education.”
Vital stats: “I am fortunate to have spent my entire career at McGladrey, beginning as an entry-level auditor and advancing to partner in 1987. Since then, I have held a variety of leadership roles at McGladrey that have led to my current position.” Adams and Cheryl, his wife of 36 years, have five grown children and five grandchildren.
What I like best about my job: “I like the short- and long-term challenges that consume my day. Overseeing a complex business provides me with an opportunity to be involved in a variety of areas, from strategy and vision to financial and operational results. I also enjoy working closely with the outstanding people who work for McGladrey or are clients and friends of our great firm.”
The biggest challenge I face in my job: “Working to stay ahead of our competition and positioning our firm as uniquely better and the first-choice advisor to middle market leaders. This means constantly working to attract and develop diverse talent and providing them with a working environment that is second to none so they will, in turn, provide our clients with an experience that is second to none.”
My DePaul experience: “DePaul gave me a solid educational foundation not only in accounting and business, but also in nontechnical skills that have served me well throughout my career. The relationships I built at DePaul have aided me in my business and personal goals, and I am especially grateful to the DePaul career placement office for helping me get my job at McGladrey in the first place.”
“Don’t be afraid to get out of your comfort zone or make a mistake; just be sure to learn from it.”
“Stay relevant. Learn something new every day, and impart your knowledge to and coach others.”
“Listen respectfully and challenge others about what can be better; then do your part to make it better.”
“Change is constant and accelerating—accept it and use it to your advantage.”
“The relationships you build at DePaul and the ones you build after you graduate can make all the difference. I had no idea where my career would take me, but with the help of some extraordinary mentors, I have been involved in some amazing things.”
As a child growing up on the South Side of Chicago in the 1970s, Richard Smith (BUS ’77, MBA ’83) knew he wanted to be a “business man.” Yet, Smith struggled with variables and formulas, as well as with the stigma others placed upon him as the poor son of a cafeteria worker. He felt like he didn’t belong in the finance world.
Smith’s DePaul education helped him enter this world, and after 20 years of building his own investment firm, Smith created The Wall Street Program to help others follow in his footsteps. The free finance and investment education program teaches Chicago-area middle schoolers the ins and outs of finance and investing through virtual investment accounts set up on Yahoo! Finance.
Nearly 1,000 students have gone through the program. “I’m the type of person that if I learn something, I want to teach others,” says Smith. “I want the kids to know that despite having little knowledge of the finance world now, you can learn and make a good living in this area. I truly found that investing is a great way of building wealth and I want them to learn as much as possible.”
Rob Pasquesi (MBA ’10) began brainstorming a better way to foster professional relationships while he was studying entrepreneurship at DePaul. Now his idea of taking one’s online network offline has grown into NextIntro.com, a free website that helps young professionals form connections online and suggests ways for them to meet face to face.
The site allows members to create a personal page based on their LinkedIn profiles or from scratch. Members get emails suggesting other professionals they might want to meet, and the site even recommends nearby restaurants or coffee shops that could serve as meeting places. The site, which launched in 2013, now has nearly 10,000 members in Chicago, Boston, Denver and Austin, Texas.
Pasquesi, who works as an audit senior manager at a top-six international accounting and tax firm, credits DePaul’s business professors with helping him refine the website concept and putting him in touch with students.
“When I started talking to college students and young professionals, they mentioned a need for receiving mentorships and understanding more about certain professions,” Pasquesi says. “A lot of current members saw the same problems when they were students four or five years ago and now want to offer their suggestions and help.”
To read more DePaul alumni news and submit class notes, visit alumni.depaul.edu.
Joe Silich (BUS ’92) is one of the preeminent wealth advisors in the nation. But he has never forgotten his working-class roots on the southwest side of Chicago or his first-generation college experience at DePaul.
“DePaul allowed me to identify that gift inside of me—in my case, a gift for numbers,” he says. “My teachers helped me find it, nurture it, and build my knowledge. In the process, they helped me build confidence. That foundational education is a kind of ‘muscle memory’ that has served me well in my career and in life.”
As executive director at Morgan Stanley, he leads the Silich Group of wealth advisors for the firm. He has garnered numerous accolades throughout his career. He was named one of Barron’s magazine’s top financial advisors nationwide in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013. He makes frequent appearances on MSNBC, CNBC, Bloomberg and other media outlets. Throughout his career, he has been careful along the way to share his gifts and his success with the community.
At DePaul, Silich serves on the DePaul University Finance Advisory Board and the Driehaus College Campaign Committee. He works with the college to develop intern-ship opportunities for students, and personally coaches and mentors DePaul students and young alumni. His community commitments are numerous and wide-ranging. To name a few, he serves on the Chicago-based board of UNICEF, the Midwest Board of the USO, and the advisory board of Operation Homefront, which provides support for families of service members and wounded warriors across the country.
In 2010, as part of the Many Dreams, One Mission campaign, Silich established the Silich Family Endowed Scholarship for talented DePaul students in finance who, like him, grew up in Chicago and attended city public or parochial schools.
More than one-third of DePaul students are the first generation in their families to attend college. “I worked throughout school, as most DePaul students still do,” Silich says. “But I never lost sleep over midterms or finals or papers. What I did worry about was paying the semester tuition bill. I know what my education has meant to me. If I can ease that financial anxiety for talented students, help them focus more effectively on their studies, help them gain practical experience and develop their gifts, help them succeed and take their education out into the world to benefit their families and communities—that is how I measure true success.”
By Chris Anderson
I’m so lucky,” says Bin Jiang, talking about his appointment as the business school’s first Driehaus Fellow this academic year. Certainly that luck runs both ways, as Jiang has contributed excellent research and teaching as a management professor at DePaul since 2004. The five-year fellowship, funded by a portion of Richard H. Driehaus’ $30 million donation to the business school, supports the hiring and retention of extraordinary faculty.
“I was drawn to DePaul by the opportunity to work with our department chair, Scott Young, and other faculty on the business challenges that intrigue me, especially the complexities, both practical and ethical, in managing global supply chains,” Jiang says. “At DePaul, I’m part of a bigger ‘management’ discipline, and that keeps me open to ideas from other areas and colleagues. In many schools, the subsets of management are kept separate, but here we’re an intellectually collaborative group and I really like that.”
In the past 10 years, Jiang has won recognition for his scholarship, including prestigious best-paper awards from the Journal of Operations Management and the Academy of Management. But Jiang’s first love is teaching. “I agree wholeheartedly with DePaul’s philosophy,” he says. “Students are my number one priority.”
In the classroom, Jiang brings a real-world perspective based on 16 years of business experience working in China before coming to the United States. “In operations management, we use a lot of formulas, but a student can’t know what they really mean unless they’re applied practically. I illustrate the principles of supply chain management with case studies based on my own experiences and those of my business friends in China. Because I’m confident in the content, my students connect to the material better.
“Case writing is very time consuming,” Jiang says, “and many schools don’t count it as research. So, teachers are hard-pressed to use cases as a teaching tool. But in law school and medical school, students learn by cases. If I couldn’t provide good cases to my students, I would not be adequately preparing my students for their careers.”
Jiang focuses his work on the role of outsourcing because of the discipline’s central role in modern commerce, he says. “Today’s competition isn’t between companies, but between supply chains. As a result, there’s a lot of risk in these relationships.
“For example, when a company outsources part of its production, is the other company a working horse or a Trojan horse? Will the supplier steal the other’s intellectual property or even its business? This has happened plenty of times,” Jiang cautions. “Given that possibility, management has to ask, Does outsourcing really increase our company’s value? Or is it just a short-term advantage with long-term liabilities? On top of those considerations are ethical ones: Are the working conditions in the foreign company fair and safe?”
Jiang considers the Driehaus Fellowship an affirmation of his work so far and a critical enabler of his work to come. “I plan to use the award to explore an important, but underdeveloped, area—that of post-outsourcing management. I think—I plan—that this research will contribute to the reputation and prestige of the Driehaus College of Business.”
By Margaret Hoag
Research co-authored by Assistant Professor of Management Alyssa Westring offers new insights into the debate sparked by Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg’s best-selling book about the need for women to “lean in” to their careers to succeed.
Westring says, based on her research, “If we truly want more women to ‘lean in,’ we need to focus on the larger context— to think hard about how to create workplace cultures where women have the opportunity to thrive.”
Westring and her colleagues “made a remarkable discovery” when they surveyed 133 women physicians and biomedical researchers about work-family conflict for a study published in Academic Medicine, Westring writes in a Harvard Business Review blog. “Women working 60 hours a week in the most supportive departments fared significantly better than those working 45 hours a week in work units viewed as less supportive.”
The research found that supportive departments had four main characteristics: they recognized and appreciated nonwork aspects of life; provided equal access to resources and opportunities, such as administrative support, research space and funding and committee participation; addressed subtle and overt gender biases organizationwide; and were led by supervisors who actively supported women’s careers.
Millions of households that purchased homes or refinanced mortgages during the last four years, when interest rates were at historic lows, could challenge a housing market recovery if long-term interest rates were to rise quickly in the coming years, according to research from the Institute for Housing Studies at DePaul University. Increases in mortgage rates are expected due to continued pull back in the Federal Reserve’s quantitative easing policy, the study’s authors note.
“This research shows that locked-in households will be reluctant to sell their homes and finance other purchases at higher interest rates,” says Patric H. Hendershott, a senior research fellow at the institute, who coauthored the study with Jin Man Lee, the institute’s research director, and
James D. Shilling, professor and the Michael J. Horne Chair in Real Estate Studies.
Hispanic-owned businesses are a small but growing force in the Illinois economy, according to a white paper sponsored by the Richard H. Driehaus Center for International Business in collaboration with the Illinois Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and its Center for Hispanic Entrepreneurship.
Hispanic-owned ventures account for just 5 percent of the state’s businesses, but their number grew by 43 percent, compared with 16 percent for all other companies, from 2002 to 2007. During that period, payroll for Hispanic businesses rose by 28 percent, eight times that of other businesses, according to the research, which was based on U.S. Census data.
– Business Exchange Staff
ASK volunteer Yuanyun (Ella) Peng (BUS MS ’10) mentors Kellstadt student Lian (Wendy) Yang.
As a finance student at DePaul, Michael Kueker sought advice from others to help shape his professional life. “I knew that I couldn’t do this alone and that it would take much more than just me trying to put my career together,” he says.
He took advantage of DePaul’s Alumni Sharing Knowledge (ASK) program, which has a volunteer network of more than 1,100 alumni and friends of DePaul who offer career guidance to students and alumni. After graduation, Kueker (BUS ’08) found a way to give back to the program that helped him: he transitioned from mentee to mentor.
“Becoming a mentor was my acknowledgment of how fortunate I had been to have my own mentors at the right times,” says Kueker, a bank examiner at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago and a member of the ASK Advisory Board.
Kueker’s story isn’t unique. “The pay-it-forward spirit is very strong among ASK mentors. I would estimate that 30 to 40 percent of our current mentors were once mentees themselves,” says Gina Sian (CDM ’96, LAS MS ’13), DePaul’s ASK program director.
Originally created in the mid-1990s, the ASK network started as an information resource for students seeking to jump-start their careers. It became a fully developed program in 2000 and has grown to include volunteer mentors from varied backgrounds and all DePaul colleges and schools, across the United States and around the world. Students and alumni can reach out to potential mentors through ASK’s online database, and mentoring pairs can meet on their own time and interact through ASK events.
Bryan Yankton (BUS ’11) was drawn to ASK because the program gave him a perspective he couldn’t get from others in his life. His mother, an immigrant from the Philippines, wanted him to go into a health career, but he was drawn in a different direction. “I wanted to do business, and she didn’t know how to start a career in business. I thought [ASK] would be a great program to get insight and knowledge from someone else in the same industry,” he says.
Yankton had one mentor in particular who “went above and beyond” by advising him which classes to take for his honors finance track, helping him prepare for job inter¬views and providing other real-world insights into his career planning. “That’s what made me want to be a mentor now and do the same for current students,” says Yankton, a senior analyst at Wolters Kluwer.
That ASK mentors come from a variety of back-grounds, including multiple business disciplines, helped Yuanyun (Ella) Peng (BUS MS ’10) when she turned to the program while job searching. “I was eager to talk to mentors who finished a similar program and were doing well in the type of job I was looking for. After talking to several mentors, they suggested that market research would be a good fit for my background as an international student,” says Peng, who is now a research analyst at Millward Brown.
Michael Kueker (BUS ’08), an ASK mentee now mentor, shows his appreciation during an event for National Thank Your Mentor Day.
Peng knew right away that the ASK program was the right fit for her. “As soon as I was a mentee, even while receiving help from mentors, I had made up my mind that one day I would become a mentor as well, giving back what I have to those in need,” she says.
Alumni don’t need special skills to become mentors, just a willingness to share their insights. “There is great power in storytelling, especially when it’s based on firsthand experience of successes and challenges,” Sian says. “ASK offers a perfect way for our alumni to contribute to some-one else’s success simply through their words of wisdom and encouragement.”
For Yankton, the best part of being an ASK mentor is passing along what he has learned over the years. “If only I’d known all the information I know now back when I was still in school! I felt every bump that I ran into during college and my career application process, so I want to alleviate that for current students at DePaul by sharing my knowledge,” he says.
Learn more about DePaul’s Alumni Sharing Knowledge network.
By Jennifer Leopoldt
How big is big data? Consider this: before you finish reading this column, Google will process more than 2 million searches, Web shoppers will spend more than $272,000 online, Facebook users will share more than 684,000 posts, brands will attract at least 34,000 Facebook “likes” and Twitter will host 100,000 tweets.
This deluge of digital activity happens every minute of every day. It’s part of the exponential growth of data stored in public and private—data that can now be measured in exabytes, or 1,000,000,000,000,000,000- byte increments.
Hidden in this sea of data is a treasure trove of competitive intelligence for businesses. For organizations able to analyze and interpret it effectively, big data can yield deep insights about customers, suppliers, employees and market trends that have the potential to drive innovation, boost productivity and fuel growth.
However, big data also comes with big responsibilities for organizations to ensure the privacy and security of the people behind the numbers. In our cover story and online coverage, we explore these issues through the lenses of alumni, faculty members and experts who are at the forefront of the big data revolution. The rise of big data also is having a big impact on the job market. A recent IBM survey of 900 executives worldwide revealed that a key challenge facing business is finding enough talent skilled in analyzing and interpreting big data.
To help our students take advantage of these opportunities, Kellstadt will soon introduce new, specialized master’s degrees focusing on business data analytics in several disciplines. These degrees will equip our students with the tools and knowledge needed to distill large-scale data into valuable insights that drive business strategy.
Meanwhile, our plans to launch the college’s first doctoral degree also center on creating a distinctive program for executives that emphasizes analytical skills. Our Executive Doctorate in Business Administration degree is designed for business leaders who want to master applied research methods for tackling complex, big-picture business issues.
Finally, the redesign of this publication was guided primarily by data gathered from you, our alumni. In response to your interests, we have expanded Business Exchange (formerly Commerce Exchange) by adding new features that will help you stay engaged with DePaul’s business school and its robust alumni network. The new publication explores major business trends through the thought leadership of alumni, faculty and industry experts. We’ll spotlight advice, resources and connections that promote professional growth among our alumni. We’ll keep you updated on faculty achievements and research that under-score the quality of the business school you attended. And we’ll share the most recent accomplishments of your fellow graduates.
Ray Whittington
Dean, Driehaus College of Business
What’s it like to discuss careers, investing and the economy with Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett? For MBA student Kate Stevenson, it felt like investing two hours to gain “the lessons of a lifetime.”
Stevenson and 19 other DePaul graduate business students were invited to query the “Oracle of Omaha” and tour several Berkshire Hathaway businesses during a visit to the multinational conglomerate’s Omaha headquarters in October. The students were chosen from more than 300 Kellstadt Graduate School of Business applicants who sought a chance to meet the renowned business leader, investor and philanthropist. Kellstadt was among a select group of only seven business schools, including Harvard and Columbia, asked by Berkshire to participate in the student forum. Alumnus Frank Ptak (BSC ’65), president and CEO of Marmon Group, a Berkshire Hathaway company, helped secure DePaul’s invitation.
Buffett answered a wide range of questions during a two-hour Q&A session. He advised students to be true to themselves and follow their career passions.
“Very few people succeed at something that doesn’t excite them,” he said. “Find a job you would do even if you were already rich and didn’t need the money. I’m 83 and still excited by what I do.”
DePaul is making graduate education more accessible for university alumni and new Kellstadt students by increasing its scholarship offerings.
DePaul alumni who wish to earn another degree from their alma mater through the Double Demon Scholarship program begun last year can now apply the scholarships to graduate study at Kellstadt or six other DePaul colleges and schools.
Alumni receive a 25 percent discount on tuition for master’s degree programs and select certificate programs. Meanwhile, beginning this fall, new students who enroll in Kellstadt degree programs may be eligible for thousands of dollars in DePaul scholarships, with award amounts determined by each student’s academic profile.
The Kellstadt Graduate Scholarship is for domestic students, and the Kellstadt Dean’s Scholarship is for students who require a visa to study in the United States. For more information about scholarship award amounts, eligibility and deadlines, contact the Kellstadt Graduate School of Business office at (312) 362-8810 or kgsb@depaul.edu.
The Driehaus College of Business was recognized for its academic excellence this year in the following rankings:
No. 1: Kellstadt’s Master of Science in Taxation (MST) tied for first place in TaxTalent.com’s ranking of the best MST programs in the nation, based on a survey of tax firm hiring managers.
No. 24: DePaul’s undergraduate entrepreneurship program again made the annual list of the best colleges for entrepreneurs published by Entrepreneur Magazine and The Princeton Review.
Top 30: Thirteen of DePaul’s graduate business degree programs earned top-30 rankings among U.S. business schools in an international survey of 1,000 business school deans conducted by Paris-based education.
– Business Exchange Staff
In the decade since LinkedIn began as a career website, online networking has taken on new importance. “In the beginning, it was more a question of, ‘Should I make a profile?’ Now it’s a given that you need to be on LinkedIn to have a professional presence,” says Christa Hinton (MBA ’98, EdD ’12), assistant dean for the Driehaus College of Business and director of the Kellstadt Career Management Center.
Even though online networking has become an accepted part of professional culture, business students and alumni often still wonder how to best manage a profile. Hinton and Colleen Fashing Reaney, associate director of alumni relations, detail four ways to make the most of LinkedIn.
1. Provide the right information.
A LinkedIn profile looks a bit like a resume, but its flexible design lets you add more detail. Instead of just listing your job description, tailor your profile with specific, measurable accomplishments and a headline that accurately describes what you do.
Unlike regular resumes, LinkedIn also has space for a picture. Some people may be uncomfortable posting a photo online, either for privacy reasons or because it’s not a cultural norm in the United States. However, both Hinton and Reaney encourage using a photo. “If you don’t have a headshot, your profile isn’t considered 100 percent complete and you can’t progress with some of the resources on LinkedIn,” Reaney says.
If you want to apply for job postings through LinkedIn, pay attention to the recommendations section. Without three to five recommendations—short endorsements you ask others to write—you might not be considered for certain opportunities. Whereas references for a job often are past supervisors, LinkedIn recommendations can come from co-workers at any level. “I encourage people to do a 360 recommendation: somebody above you, somebody below you and somebody at your level,” Reaney says.
Also, make sure to list your education on your profile. LinkedIn’s search function lets you find other people who went to DePaul, which can be helpful for connecting with old classmates or job searching.
2. Create a dynamic profile.
Keeping your LinkedIn profile up to date is vital. “It’s a living thing that needs to be nurtured,” Hinton says, comparing it to keeping a current resume. “You wouldn’t let your resume sit for 10 years and then go apply for a new job with that same resume.”
LinkedIn is also easier to update than a resume. LinkedIn allows you to edit sections as much as you want; if you try something that you don’t like, you can easily delete it and start over.
3. Decide how you want to connect.
LinkedIn allows users to link with people they actually know and to reach out to potential connections they have never met. Deciding which approach you want to take is personal, and there are two schools of thought.
“If I cannot recognize your name or your face by looking at your profile, I will not connect with you,” Reaney says. Her philosophy is that having multiple “touches” with a person—meeting at a networking event, emailing or having coffee—before asking to connect on LinkedIn can lead to a stronger relationship.
In Hinton’s opinion, “It never hurts to ask.” She is open to connecting with people she doesn’t personally know as long as they explain why they want to link with her. LinkedIn allows users to personalize every request beyond the basic “I’d like to add you to my professional network” wording. For example, Hinton encourages Business Exchange readers who want to learn more about LinkedIn to send her a connection request mentioning this article.
4. Be an active participant.
LinkedIn is about more than just creating a profile. To get the most use out of the site, look in the “Interests” section for companies to follow and groups to join. “When you’re part of a group, it is important to post occasionally, because that helps people know who you are and that you’re part of a larger dialogue,” Hinton says.
Amid updating your professional profile and connecting online, don’t forget that personal relationships still matter when networking. “Remember to get out of your house and actually shake some hands and meet people face to face,” Reaney suggests.
Connect with alumni from all of DePaul’s colleges and schools through the DePaul University Alumni Association group on LinkedIn, which has more than 19,500 members.
Set up an appointment with the Kellstadt Career Management Center by calling (312) 362-8272 or emailing mba@depaul.edu.
Get career advice from the Office of Alumni Relations by calling (800) 437-1898 or emailing dpalumni@depaul.edu.
By Jennifer Leopoldt
Ninety percent of the data that exists in the world today has been created since 2010.
The consulting firm IDC predicts that by 2020 this digital universe will expand by a factor of 300, from 130 to 40,000 exabytes.
How much is that? One exabyte has 18 zeros behind it.
In people terms, that’s more than 5,200 gigabytes of data for every man, woman and child on Earth by 2020.
Consumers are the main source of this growth, creating more than two-thirds of the data in cyberspace through videos watched, photos shared, social media messages sent and purchases made online. Add to this a mountain of machine-generated data from smartphones, tablets and networked computers, plus supermarket scanners and other sensors, and what has come to be known as big data certainly lives up to its name.
Big data is usually viewed in terms of aggregate numbers, such as millions of cell phone calls culled by the National Security Agency or billions of pages created on the Internet. But for people who really want to understand how this phenomenon can affect their business, professional and personal lives, it’s useful to reduce the term to its essence: fragments of our lives ensconced in digital code.
“The businesses that will thrive in this space will realize that value and convenience to the consumer—to individuals—is at the center of this big data evolution,” says Sheila Colclasure, global public policy and privacy officer at Acxiom, an international digital data brokerage. “The consumer is the primary constituency. The technology and data are the means to enable businesses to meet the needs of the consumer.
“Our job in the business world is to deliver value and positive brand experiences to the consumer,” Colclasure continues. “In relation to the technology and data used to do that, we’ve got to help consumers get an understanding of how it works and provide relevant choices and controls.”
So, just how do we find value in this data-driven world as businesspeople and consumers without drowning in numbers? We asked alumni, industry and academic experts to provide their perspectives on the top four trends in big data.
Hackers have gained access to more than 534 million personal records, including Social Security and financial account information, since 2005, according to the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse. In 2014 alone, more than 273 breaches have been reported, involving 22 million personal records.
If you think big-box retailers and credit card companies are the only ones who need to worry about this problem, think again. Anyone who collects consumer data—from corporations to mom-and-pop operations—must develop strategies for securing and using customer data properly.
Consumers want data about themselves protected, which means keeping it secured from unauthorized or unintended access. Consumers also want data to be used to create value, benefits and conveniences,” says Colclasure.
Sheila Colclasure, Acxiom
Not all data are the same, however, and it is important to develop security practices that correspond to the type and sensitivity of the data. Good starting points include establishing formal policies and practices for securing sensitive data in transit, such as encryption policies, and implementing security industry standards advocated by the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council when collecting and/or processing credit card payments.
Businesses also must ensure security compliance for service providers and other third parties with access to internal systems. In December 2013, Target discovered that credit card data from 110 million of its customers had been stolen electronically. Media reports suggest the cybercriminals may have introduced their data-stealing malware into Target’s network through software used by one of Target’s vendors.
“Companies should continually monitor their environment, as threats can originate from internal as well as external sources,” says Eileen T. Carlson (MBA ’85), director of information governance at Baxter Healthcare. “They need to think seriously about what services they outsource and what partners and vendors they engage. Regardless of how the breach occurs, the company is ultimately responsible, and it is their brand that is impacted.”
British scientist and Wolfram Research founder Stephen Wolfram began tracking all his emails in 1989. “One day,” he wrote in a prophetic blog post, “I’m sure everyone will routinely collect all sorts of data about themselves.”
One day is today. We are in the age of the quantified self.
Big data is no longer the sole purview of businesses. More than one million people use the computational search engine Wolfram Alpha to analyze their Facebook data. More than 55 million Americans track their diet or fitness activity using apps such as Lose It!
“‘Life logging’” is creating new industries and opportunities for entrepreneurs and companies,” says J-P Contreras (BUS ’97, MBA ’01), general manager of IBM business analytics at Perficient, an IT-solutions-driven consulting firm. “Companies that think entrepreneurially in this space will identify an analytical need for the data that hasn’t been served yet,” he says.
“People are looking for data on themselves that will benefit them.”
The opportunity for growth in the personal analytics arena is expanding each year. A Pew Research study found that 69 percent of adults track a personal health indicator, and one in five use at least one form of technology for this tracking. In addition, 34 percent of health data trackers share that information with others, including their doctors or spouses and partners.
J-P Contreras (BUS ’97), (MBA ’01)
Moreover, customers are using their personal analytics to influence companies to make products better.
Fitbit Force, a hot-selling item during the 2013 Christmas season, allows users to track physical activities through a wireless-enabled wristband. Selling at $129, the device took over the wearable fitness market with a 60 percent share, beating similar products by Nike.
But just months after it became the top seller in its category, Fitbit Force wearers began doing some data tracking of their own on how many users were developing rashes. They created an online Google Docs forum detailing rash symptoms, duration and cures. In all, more than 500 users uploaded personal data for the world to see—pictures included. Shortly thereafter, Fitbit voluntarily stopped sales of the Fitbit Force, recalled the product and issued refunds.
Experts say businesses shouldn’t be threatened by consumers’ grasp of their own data, but embrace it as a way to improve their companies. Says Carlson, “If you’re coming up with ways to provide value to new and existing customers, consumers will want to do business with you.
The general public will be more forgiving if you make a mistake and are viewed as a consumer-conscious company.”
Increasingly, companies are looking inward and using aggregate data to improve their operations, experts say.
Eileen Carlson (MBA ’85)
At Perficient, Contreras works with some of the largest retailers, financial services companies and health care conglomerates to collect data on their own processes to make them more efficient. For example, pharmaceutical companies are creating “e-pedigrees,” or electronic tracking dossiers, that follow products from the raw-materials-gathering stage through packaging and on to store distribution. The data are used not only to comply with drug regulations, but also to identify weak links in the supply chain. If a defective product is detected, companies can now pinpoint exactly which batch is the source of the problem, avoiding a mass recall.
Other companies are improving their operations by using radio frequency identification (RFID) sensors to watch their planes, trains and automobiles move through the supply chain in real time, and then using the data to improve delivery and production times.
Big data also is forcing companies to destroy old silos that keep internal departments from sharing information.
“A startup company should be looking at implementing totally integrated systems and processes,” Carlson says.
“Many companies segregate their sales force from their customer service organization. The sales force is not aware that a customer has called customer service multiple times for the same issue. Yet, the sales force starts telling the customer how important she is and that they want to build a relationship, while the customer is thinking, ‘If I am so important, why don’t you know that I called three times in the last month for the same issue.’”
By all accounts, the team of well-educated attorneys who work with Colclasure at Acxiom are smart and capable. Yet, she has asked them to become students again: “‘Your challenge,’ I told my team, ‘is to become technologists.’”
For the last two years, Colclasure and her team have been immersed in understanding technology and what the data scientists are doing at Acxiom. They are not merely looking at data output, but at the architectural schematics of the data itself, combing through it bit by bit. No longer will they depend upon the IT crowd to interpret and protect the data. They are learning firsthand about the technology engineering necessary to parse big data.
Sue Fogel, Marketing Chair
Acxiom is not alone. Peers who work in compliance at high-tech companies “are saying they’ve got to apply analytical thinking to this space, and they need the technology skills to do it,” Colclasure says.
This trend of merging skill sets—where understanding the creation, interpretation and protection of data is as essential as knowing profit and loss statements— has begun to affect the job market. According to a recent Manpower survey, about one in three jobs go unfilled because applicants lack the required technical skills.
That’s why DePaul’s Kellstadt Graduate School of Business offers an MS in Marketing Analysis and has partnered with the College of Computing and Digital Media to launch an MS in Predictive Analytics degree. Sue Fogel chairs the Department of Marketing, which offers both programs. “Graduates of these programs understand how data fits into creating best business practices, what all that data can tell a company and how it can affect a company’s decision-making process,” she says. “They are in high demand for everything from digital marketing to risk analysis to telecommunications.”
Big data as an industry is still in its adolescent phase—both enhancing and disrupting industries, lives and careers as it inserts itself into our daily life. The key to understanding big data personally, professionally and within business, our experts say, is to never forget its purpose—the individual customer.
By Ovetta Sampson
