{"id":656802,"date":"2024-03-19T07:26:40","date_gmt":"2024-03-19T14:26:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/?post_type=wherenext&p=656802"},"modified":"2024-03-20T09:18:59","modified_gmt":"2024-03-20T16:18:59","slug":"penskes-kwaku-baa","status":"publish","type":"wherenext","link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/publications\/wherenext\/penskes-kwaku-baa","title":{"rendered":"An Analytics Whiz Learns the Language of Business"},"author":501,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"sync_status":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","castos_file_data":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[],"tags":[571,278902,281,486642],"department":[476782],"wherenext-category":[],"industry":[],"class_list":["post-656802","wherenext","type-wherenext","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-analytics","tag-data-science","tag-location-intelligence","tag-wherenext-profiles","department-new-analyst"],"acf":{"short_description":"Data scientist Kwaku Baa brings the creative power of location analytics to Penske. ","pdf":{"host_remotely":false,"file":"","file_url":""},"flexible_content":[{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"Everything Kwaku Baa had studied\u2014advanced math at a Ghanaian boarding school, engineering in Russia, computer programming and statistics in Toronto\u2014should have prepared him for the project that landed on his desk that day."},{"acf_fc_layout":"sidebar","layout":"standard","image_reference":null,"image_reference_figure":"","spotlight_image":null,"section_title":"","spotlight_name":"","position":"Left","content":"Snapshot:<\/strong> An analytics phenom realizes he lacks business awareness, signs on to earn an MBA, and goes on to deliver cutting-edge location analysis for transportation leader Penske.","snippet":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"He was a young programmer in the shipping department at Nortel, then one of Canada\u2019s most valuable companies and a standout in the 1990s tech boom. Baa\u2019s manager asked for a software program that would track shipments of Nortel\u2019s telecom equipment to customers worldwide.\r\n\r\nBaa hesitated.\r\n\r\n\u201cI could write whatever code you asked me,\u201d he says now, \u201cbut I realized to be a good programmer, you have to understand . . . the different components of the businesses, how they all interact.\u201d\r\n\r\nSo Baa, who loved the vocabulary of calculus and the elegance of computer languages, enrolled in an MBA program to study the language of business. What he learned was more than linguistics\u2014it was an understanding of where value lies in a company, and how his work could expand across an enterprise.\r\n

Applying New Skills to Business Outcomes<\/strong><\/h3>\r\nSeveral years later in 2007, Baa was working full-time and studying for yet another degree\u2014a master\u2019s in IT management at Carnegie Mellon\u2014when he took an introductory class in geographic information system (GIS)<\/a> software. As the professor described the technology\u2019s capabilities, Baa\u2019s business sense began to tingle."},{"acf_fc_layout":"sidebar","layout":"standard","image_reference":null,"image_reference_figure":"","spotlight_image":null,"section_title":"","spotlight_name":"","position":"Right","content":"Related Reads<\/strong>\r\n\r\n\/\/ An analytics leader at a big bank channels curiosity<\/a> to uncover insight\r\n\r\n\/\/ A quick look at the cutting edge<\/a> in transportation and logistics","snippet":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"\u201cI could see how GIS actually plays a huge part in what I was doing,\u201d he remembers.\r\n\r\nAt the time, he was working for a transportation company, mapping sales territories across the country. The data that determined where one manager\u2019s territory ended and another\u2019s began hinged on a matrix of calculations involving drive times, competitor locations, fuel costs, and more. The team spent six months each year analyzing and structuring the territories.\r\n\r\nSensing an opportunity to improve the process and the bottom line, Baa began to experiment with GIS. Using the data science embedded in the software, he automated the analysis and mapping of sales territories. Soon, a six-month process had shrunk to barely 24 hours.\r\n\r\n\u201cWe could just create scenarios in a day,\u201d Baa says of the GIS-based program. \u201cIt's all in bits and bytes, so you can just look at it and see whether you want it or not.\u201d If the management team didn\u2019t agree with a proposed map, \u201cyou send it back to my desk and I come up with a new solution.\u201d"},{"acf_fc_layout":"quote","image":656772,"text":"We're always on the lookout for new things\u2026 And I see GIS as a new frontier for a lot of companies.","author_name":"Kwaku Baa, Penske","author_profession_organization":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"

Analytics across the Enterprise<\/strong><\/h3>\r\nHal Monty has worked with some of the sharpest minds in the business world\u2014from fellow Six Sigma Master Black Belts at GE Aviation to investment managers in private equity\u2014and he knows the rarity of someone like Kwaku Baa.\r\n\r\nBaa and Monty have worked together for the last decade at Penske Truck Leasing\u2014Monty as a consultant for market strategy and Baa as the company\u2019s director for customer experience and analytics. Penske leases more than 440,000 trucks\u2014the literal engines of the economy\u2014to commercial and retail customers in North America.\r\n\r\nIn Baa, Monty sees a passion for improving processes and wringing insight out of data. But first and foremost, he sees someone who is capable, impactful, and kind.\r\n\r\n\u201cI think his character shines through, and then the rest of the business acumen and stats skills just add to all of that,\u201d Monty says.\r\n\r\nFor Baa, the best insights often emerge from a marriage of data science and the data management and analysis facilitated by GIS technology.\r\n\r\n\u201cI started my career in classic analytics, using advanced statistical tools to solve business problems,\u201d he explains. \u201cI consider GIS as a natural growth of the tools and capabilities we need to solve complex business problems that have location components.\u201d\r\n\r\nWhen the pandemic hit, Baa and Monty began using GIS analysis to show Penske executives the daily state of the business. Data-rich maps revealed areas of risk exposure as well as opportunities for business growth. Once the COVID wave receded, interest in GIS spread across the enterprise at Penske Truck Leasing, a company deeply rooted in innovation and analytics<\/a>.\r\n\r\n\u201cEverybody who sees and hears about the GIS and what it can do wants a piece of it,\u201d Baa says."},{"acf_fc_layout":"quote","image":656782,"text":"I can't even tell you any business unit within Penske right now that we are not touching.","author_name":"Kwaku Baa, Penske","author_profession_organization":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"

Forget the Credit; Find the Solution <\/strong><\/h3>\r\nBaa grew up in Ghana, the youngest and quietest of eight siblings. He spent hours immersed in books and a small group of friends. He was driven to learn\u2014an itch that propelled him to skip multiple grades during his K12 education and eventually earn three postgraduate degrees. Just don\u2019t look for a string of letters after his name.\r\n\r\n\u201cHe doesn\u2019t need to be the guy out front getting all the credit,\u201d says Samantha Thompson, head of customer success and fleet telematics at Penske Truck Leasing. \u201cHe\u2019s behind the scenes on a lot of major things happening here at Penske,\u201d she notes. \u201cBut he stands out.\u201d\r\n\r\nAmong other projects, Baa and the analytics team use GIS to address the same challenge he solved when he first discovered the technology years ago: planning sales territories for Penske\u2019s nearly 1,500 sites. With location intelligence<\/a> from GIS, Penske optimizes its service network, spotting new areas of customer demand and ensuring that sales areas don\u2019t overlap.\r\n\r\nThroughout the enterprise, Baa anticipates business needs and uses GIS technology to deliver more than colleagues expect. Recently, the facilities team requested a GIS dashboard showing basic attributes of work orders for Penske\u2019s leasing locations\u2014information that would help them manage maintenance work on facilities. They hoped to update the data a few times a year.\r\n\r\nInstead, Baa integrated GIS with Penske\u2019s asset management system, ensuring that up-to-date data flowed between the systems. His team added more information to the dashboard than the facilities team requested\u2014not only details of each building\u2019s lighting system and driveway paving history, but its ownership and work order status, square footage, and more.\r\n\r\nHis advice to his team comes straight from his MBA days: \u201cLet\u2019s understand their business goals beyond what they talk about. Let\u2019s give them something that\u2019s integrated into some of the tools that they have.\u201d"},{"acf_fc_layout":"quote","image":656792,"text":"What I've seen with Kwaku is persistence and ability to read the organization, not to give up on things that he's passionate about, and that he knows is in the best interest of the company.","author_name":"Hal Monty, Penske","author_profession_organization":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"

Location Intelligence, Analytics, and Dependability\u00a0 <\/strong><\/h3>\r\nEven as GIS spread across the Penske enterprise, Baa was surprised when members of corporate security and HR requested support. The analytics team is now working on ways in which location technology can monitor security<\/a> across the company and analyze regional labor trends<\/a>.\r\n\r\n\u201cMy approach is not about selling the use of GIS,\u201d Baa says. He knows GIS technology and location analytics will help Penske address many business challenges, \u201cbut I don\u2019t go in saying that. It\u2019s all about understanding what is the business outcome you want to reach . . . and what has prevented you from getting there?\u201d\r\n\r\nIn the months ahead, he expects GIS to expand even further across the enterprise. \u201cI see it as a way to democratize information across Penske,\u201d he says.\r\n\r\nThat eagerness to support colleagues is a hallmark of the new business analyst<\/a>, and Thompson sees it as one of Baa\u2019s best qualities.\r\n\r\n\u201cHe is very willing to help people,\u201d she says, \u201cand to help lift their work and move it forward with what he\u2019s capable of doing.\u201d\r\n\r\nMonty agrees. On his list of Baa\u2019s most admirable qualities, GIS prowess and analytical savvy run a close second to dependability.\r\n\r\n\u201cIf he commits to you, you can pretty much take it to the bank that he\u2019s going to follow through for you.\u201d"}],"references":null},"yoast_head":"\nLocation Analytics Take Root in Penske\u2019s Culture of Innovation<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"At Penske, a culture of curiosity and innovation helped one analytics leader merge classical analytics with GIS technology across the enterprise.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/publications\/wherenext\/penskes-kwaku-baa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"An Analytics Whiz Learns the Language of Business\" \/>\n<meta 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