Data Analogy - The Orchestra Conductor

Is an orchestra conductor of any value? And how is this related to analytics?

I used to wonder why orchestra conductors are so celebrated when they just sway their hands at those playing the music (I blame a Jackie Chan movie I watched as a kid for my very misguided view). I now know that like a sushi chef, becoming a conductor takes years of intense training and practice in music theory and other musical matters. I learned that while musicians focus on playing their instruments well, the conductor ensures everyone plays well together.

Reflecting on my misconceptions of conductors got me thinking about value creation in analytics. Elon Musk famously said he expects all his technical managers to still code. While I have seen my fair share of messenger managers who create little or no value, I have also seen managers add value to their teams by setting up a conducive environment for individual contributors to perform at their best. The tasks that such managers do well include defining team priorities, resolving cross-team conflicts and bottlenecks, and aligning team efforts with the overall organisation direction, just to name a few. Such managers create value like how conductors elegantly arrange musical notes from different musicians in an orchestra performance.

As a business owner

You may be pressed to hire someone to quickly build out analytics projects when your organisation is starting its analytics journey. However, data projects can involve many technical and non-technical stakeholders, and get complicated very quickly.

Just like how a conductor coordinates the melodies of different musicians, complicated data projects need an experienced analytics manager to manage them. And just like how a conductor needs to be well-versed in many aspects of an orchestra performance, a qualified analytics manager will be able to combine his technical knowledge and business acumen to define and develop the right analytics projects that will create positive business impact for their organisations.

In fact, hiring a qualified analytics manager early in your organisation’s analytics journey can also save you from wasted time and effort in implementing failed analytics projects or analytics projects that bring no value to your organisation.

So, if you are not sure how to start your organisation’s analytics journey, or are seeing limited value from your analytics projects, your organisation most probably needs such an “analytics conductor”. And if you struggle to find an analytics manager, feel free to reach out to me on Linkedin to see how I can in my role as an analytics consultant work with your organisation to achieve your analytics aspirations and business goals.