On 27th July 2019, the students of the Vinod Gupta School of Management, IIT Kharagpur had the privilege of hosting Mr Harsh Chhaparia, Partner, McKinsey & Company for a Guest Lecture on "The use of Advanced Analytics in various domains". A distinguished alumnus of the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, Mr Chhaparia has rich experience of over 11 years in driving sales transformations and growth strategy.
Mr Chhaparia commenced the session by introducing advanced analytics and how it is changing the business landscape, challenging our existing perceptions of what we deem possible. With advances in different sectors of the industry, it has become imperative to embrace analytics to keep pace with the fast-changing world. The consulting domain has witnessed many changes over the past 10 years. He further highlighted an interesting fact, nearly 90% of data ever created was done so in the last 2 years! Due to the boom in the analytics sector, the cost of storage has greatly reduced, and the reduced cost of prediction has improved computing power. The depth of expertise has become a pivotal criterion in evaluating success and overtaking the competition. To make the session intriguing, Mr Chhaparia shared a few case studies depicting the use of advanced analytics in real-world scenarios, which was one of the key takeaways of the session. These examples piqued the interest of everyone present as they illustrated the inestimable power of analytics and the extent to which it can influence our everyday life. Mr Chhaparia also shared some useful insights on how the traditional execution approach is shifting from hypothesis to prediction while answering the queries of the inquisitive learners in the audience. His in-depth and thorough analysis of business cases and ideas on leveraging advanced analytics in marketing, sales and consulting domains were highly educative. Mr Chhaparia concluded this highly interactive session by discussing the need for change in the current scenario and the skill set necessary to ride the changing tide. This enriching session provided many thought-provoking ideas and exposed the students to the real-world implications of advanced analytics. The Vinod Gupta School of Management, IIT Kharagpur thanks Mr Harsh Chhaparia for giving of his valuable time to conduct such a compelling session and sharing his fascinating insights with the budding managers of tomorrow.