I’ll Have Another Order of the Escalade, Please

My wife recently relayed to me an odd story told to her by a car rental agent. This agent told my wife about a woman who for months has rented the same Escalade over and over, renewing her rental agreement for a few weeks at a time. Escalades are considered premium/luxury rentals, so the bill […]

Why Is the Middle Seat So Valuable On AirTran?

AirTran Airways provides multi-tiered pricing for advance reservation of seating in its coach class. AirTran differentiates its pricing by positioning vertically in the plane, but not horizontally. That is, for some reason, AirTran charges the same price for a middle seat in the same row as an aisle and middle seat. AirTran does not charge […]

Waste Management Collects Its Dirty Data in the Field

{Spoiler alert! This post reveals the story of a previously aired episode of “Undercover Boss“} After watching this year’s Superbowl, I left the television remain turned on and discovered a CBS show called “Undercover Boss.” On this show, top executives disguise themselves as lower level employees to review company operations from the perspective of the […]

Amazon’s e-Book Pricing Problem

I intended to write a detailed examination of Amazon’s pricing problem with e-books. However after doing just a little research, I found there are plenty of people who have already provided excellent opinions and recommendations. So, instead of providing my classic unsolicited advice, I am posting links to the two most insightful pieces I found […]

Dan Siroker’s Five Keys to Successful Data Analysis

Dan Siroker, former Director of Analytics for the Obama Presidential Campaign, was a keynote speaker at SoCon10. SoCon is an annual conference run by the Center for Sustainable Journalism at Kennesaw State University in the Atlanta, GA area. This year’s theme was “Proven Social Media, Social Network Tactics to Enrich Your Business, Nonprofit and Yourself.” […]

Pricing Program at the UC Berkeley Center for Executive Education

The UC Berkeley Center for Executive Education is offering a 4-day pricing program called “Pricing for Profitability in the Information Age“, April 27-30, 2010 and November 15-18, 2010. Here is the intro and program description provided by the program’s website: “Companies leave millions, sometimes billions, of dollars on the table every year through sub-optimal pricing […]

Tom Davenport Discusses New Book: “Analytics at Work: Smarter Decisions Better Results”

Tom Davenport discusses his new book “Analytics at Work: Smarter Decisions Better Results” in Information Week. Davenport and his co-author, Jeanne Harris, wrote this follow-up to: Provide a guide for creating and promoting analytical capabilities without making analytics a core business strategy. Emphasize the importance of data governance. Introduce a formal framework called the DELTA […]

Why Can’t I Have the Brownie Instead of the Muffin with My Box Lunch Special?

I maintain a relatively regular lunch rotation that features essentially the same main item at each eating establishment. Today, I was delivered a shock to my comfortable culinary routine: I was told that I could not substitute a brownie for the muffin that comes with the chicken salad sandwich box meal at, what I will […]

Dan Siroker – Director of Analytics, Obama Presidential Campaign – Keynote Speaker at SoCon 10

FYI – Dan Siroker, Director of Analytics, Obama Presidential Campaign, will be a keynote speaker at SoCon 10, January 29-30, 2010. SoCon is a conference on Social Media and Social Networking held in the Atlanta area every year since 2007. I attended in 2008, and I highly recommend it for anyone interested in this space. […]

Burger King Broiling: Struggling with Global Vs. Local Profit Optimization

On the same day that BusinessWeek lauded Subway for the success of its discount $5 footlong sandwiches, the National Franchise Association (NFA) sued Burger King Corporation over the legality of requiring franchisees to charge no more than $1 for the Double Cheeseburger. The Subway success story features a pricing strategy built from the bottom where […]