People in the marketing industry quite often talk about 'the science' of what they do, but often if you start to dig and investigate a lot of 'the science' falls apart (sample sizes, method and so on).
George Danner's excellent book Profit from Science, published by Palgrave Macmillan addresses this by clearly showing how you can apply scientific method to modern business problems, for example through methods like data analytics, and remote collaboration.
It a very interesting and readable book and very inspiring for people wanting to become more disciplined and analytical in their work.
Danner starts by outlining the steps of scientific method - Observation, Research, Hypothesis, Prediction, Experimentation, Conclusion, and then shows how to match different techniques to the different problems.
Working on the principle that ‘data is the fuel for any scientific investigation’ (which I would heartily endorse), he looks at how to acquire data, and what to do with different sorts of data, and establishing a workflow for problem solving
This might sound dry (it's not) but the book then goes beyond the analytical techniques and looks at how you deliver your results to the best effect, including visualisation & the design of presentation materials, and also looks at such vital skills as how to be a good client and cultural resistance to the results of research (aka objection handling).
Finally, he looks at the sorts of things we should expect to be using in method and analysis in the future, including Siri, Nest, Watson, and Virtual reality and concludes that ‘It’s a great time to be alive’
It's all well set out and logically ordered, and while I'd recommend reading from start to finish, clear summaries at end of each chapter mean that you can dip back into it easily too.
This is a great addition to any media or business book shelf - you can buy it from Amazon here or download a sample chapter here
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