Org. Alignment --> Level 1

Focus on the organization from analyst perspective and analytic positioning in terms of organizations suitability to individuals' career goals





I have been thinking about and doing some research on the organizational alignment of analytic organizations. What I came up with is the above 4-box. What do we really need to know about organizational alignment at the high level?
I believe the answer to this question is twofold:
1. From analyst perspective you want to think about how the organization structure, decision making process, complexity of business will impact your ability to utilize analytical skills you desire to master. For example: if you want to make a career shift from IT to Advanced Analytics (say econometric modeling) you want to make sure the econometric modeling is utilized or is ready to be utilized as the technique for key decision making. Otherwise you will unlikely be granted immediate opportunities for growth in this area.
2. From the organization perspective you need to be able to stay truthful internally at what the needs are as far as analytic coverage. If your core need is reporting but you staffed with several PHDs in stats, thinking fewer people with more skills... you will inevitably run into internal issues and likely a high turnover problem. I am focusing here on the core of your organization analytic needs because I realize in practice you will need certain mix of different skill sets to be effective.

Summarizing: if you are looking for a job in analytics or are the organization hiring analytic minds, you should certainly make an assessment of the organizational needs in this area to better serve your long term goals.