Hubbard Decision Research
The Applied Information Economics Company: Consulting, Training, and Execution
Overview – 11.07.2011
Hubbard Decision Research provides training, consulting, and tools for the most difficult measurement, forecasting and investment decisions facing organizations today. We use the powerful Applied Information Economics (AIE) method designed especially for those problems that (at first) seem unquantifiable. The president and founder, Douglas W. Hubbard, is the lead consultant as well as an author of three books that have sold a total of over 50,000 copies in five languages.
Tim Peter for Marketing
I talked to someone who has both a vision as well as an impressive track record for marketing. Tim Peter (www.timpeter.com) describes his services on his website as “proven solutions to improve your e-commerce results and your Internet marketing”.
I came across his site because I got a Google Alert on a flattering review he had written for How to Measure Anything and another review he wrote for Pulse on his blog (so, yes, I might be a bit biased in my review of Tim). But my first impression was actually when I checked his sites rank on Alexa.com. Checking the Alexa.com rank is now a habit I have when anyone who asks me for a radio interview, to contribute content in some way, or if I see any review of my books I read in blogs. I found that for someone who has only been in business for 6 months, his traffic outranks many small SEO and marketing firms. His traffic also is higher than mine and I’ve been promoting my site and the services described on it for many years.
After confirming his credentials on Alexa, I gave him a call and we talked for a while about his area of expertise. He seemed to me to have a lot of insight in the issue of webmarketing and he tries to measure it – which, as you know, makes me a fan of what he does. Check out his site and talk to him if you are looking for that kind of service.
Doug Hubbard
Quote of the Day – 08.05.2011
“Once managers figure out what they mean and why it matters, the issue in question starts to look a lot more measurable. This is usually my first level of analysis when I conduct what I’ve called ‘clarification workshops.’ It’s simply a matter of clients stating a particular, but initially ambiguous, item they want to measure. I then follow up by asking ‘What do you mean by <fill in the blank>?’ and ‘Why do you care?’” – Hubbard, Douglas W. (2010). How to Measure Anything: Finding the Value of Intangibles in Business (Kindle Locations 730-733). Wiley. Kindle Edition. (135 Kindle Highlights)
Duct Tape Marketing Interview/Podcast
The people at Duct Tape Marketing interviewed me for my book Pulse: The New Science of Harnessing Internet Buzz to Track Threats and Opportunities. You can find a short summary and the podcast itself here http://www.ducttapemarketing.com/blog/2011/05/12/slicing-real-time-search-for-trends-and-opportunities/
Doug Hubbard
Pulse Website is Up
The website for my new book is up at www.pulsethenewscience.com. It has downloads of examples from the book. By May, it will also have a very interesting new feature for conducting statistical analysis with data from the internet. For example users will be able to see if the frequency of a particular search term on Google will correlate with consumer confidence, unemployment, or consumer debt. We will be keeping track of the best models users come up with. It should be fun.
Doug Hubbard
Amazon’s email blast for Pulse
Amazon just sent out its email blast for my next book Pulse: The New Science of Harnessing Internet Buzz to Track Threats and Opportunities. If you get those, you know what I mean (e.g., “If you like book X you will like this new book” etc.). With my previous books, this is usually the beginning of when sales really start to pick up for a new book release. We’ll see.
Pulse is hitting the shelves
My new book, Pulse: The New Science of Harnessing Internet Buzz to Track Threats and Opportunities, just came in the mail. Amazon says it is available now and it should be on bookstore shelves in a day or two.
This book seems to generate the most excitement of all of my books so far. When I explain the idea of using Internet data mining to forecast major economic and social trends, people at the seminars where I speak are universally intrigued. Sam Savage, author of The Flaw of Averages, told me “This may be your biggest book yet”. That seemed to be bolstered by the fact that Publisher’s Weekly put Pulse in its “PW’s Top 10: Business & Economics” for the spring of 2011. So I’m cautiously optimistic.
The book is coming out earlier than the originally planned release, so we are all rushing to make sure the accompanying site is up soon. It will have a lot of interesting functionality, so be sure to check it out sometime after April 21st.
Doug Hubbard
The Zurich Risk Management Paper
Back in September of 2010, I had the honor of speaking at the Zurich annual Supply Chain Risk Management Conference in Lucerne, Switzerland. As much fun as the event was, I was equally honored when they asked me to co-author their white paper on risk management.
This year’s risk management white paper is titled “Pushing the Boundaries”. I wrote the section titled “Risk and Uncertainty”. If you are familiar with my work, you will recognize the concepts I talk about. But this has to be one of the more aesthetically attractive documents I’ve every participated in creating.
You can find the pdf on the Zurich Insurance website here: http://zdownload.zurich.com/main/Insight/Pushing_the_Boundary.pdf
Enjoy,
Doug Hubbard
Pulse: The new book
My next book – Pulse: The New Science of Harnessing Internet Buzz to Track Threats and Opportunities – is on track to come out in April. We are just going the edit process for the manuscript.
This book is an expansion on a concept I mentioned in How to Measure Anything. I write about how sources of massive amounts of data on the internet can be used to track and forecast major trends. Recent research shows how an analysis of millions of Tweets or Twitter can be used to forecast movie box office receipts or political opinions. Google Trends data about the frequency of search terms can be used to track unemployment levels and flu outbreaks. It is a vast new measurement instrument that is mostly untapped.
My publisher and the experts I asked to review the manuscript are excited about this book. I’ll keep you posted.
Doug Hubbard
Metric Junkie: A Useful Insight
Do Amazon book ranks tell us anything? Sure, they convey something about the popularity of a given book, but looking a the current rank of a book on Amazon is just a snapshot of a fairly volatile number. It would be much more useful if we could see how the ranks of books have changed over time. Fortunately, that is fairly easy to do.
The site www.metricjunkie.com allows anyone to track Amazon sales ranks of up to ten books. I track my books on Metric Junkie and I see how the ranks change when my publisher does a promotion, when an ad comes out in a magazine, when I’m interviewed by a radio host, when I speak at a conference, and so on. Since I also track some other books in similar categories, I can even see that their are seasonal and weekly cycles that affect all business books.
This site made me wonder if this could tell us even more. Can the ranks of books about a topic like buying homes or how to interview for a job tell use something about bigger trends than the sales of a single book? I think it is possible and that is part of the topic of my next book.
Stay posted,
Doug
Hubbard Decision Research
2S410 Canterbury Ct.
Glen Ellyn IL 60137
info@hubbardresearch.com
Phone: (630) 858-2788
Fax: (630) 858-2789
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