Events - Colloquia & Seminars

CCIS Colloquium Fall 2005

Math and the Merchant: The Application of Econometrics, Machine Learning and Optimization Technologies to Retail Decision-Making

Speaker: Dr. Rama Ramakrishnan, Ph.D. (Chief Scientist, Oracle Retail and Vice President, Analytics)

Date: Wednesday, December 14, 2005

Talk: 1:00 pm, 366 WVH

Abstract

Retailing is a global, multi-trillion dollar industry and touches just about every person on the planet. Yet, despite its size and complexity, most retail decisions are made primarily on instinct. This has started to change in the last decade with the availability of granular and timely sales data coupled with the development of sophisticated decision-support software that analyzes this data and recommends optimal decisions. Retailers are rapidly adopting this technology to help improve the financial consequences of the numerous decisions they make every day. In this talk, we focus on decisions made by retailers in the merchandising process, perhaps the most important business process within retail. We identify some of the core analytical decision problems in this area and describe the algorithmic/modeling techniques that have been developed to address these problems. We highlight the inter-disciplinary nature of “winning” approaches i.e., they tend to be hybrids that draw on ideas from disciplines such as econometrics, machine learning and optimization. We conclude with a summary of the financial impact of these techniques on retailers’ financials (and stock prices!) worldwide.

Biography

Rama is responsible for developing analytic techniques that have a significant impact on retailers' businesses and incorporating them into Oracle’s products and services. Prior to Oracle, Rama played a similar role at retail profit optimization software firm ProfitLogic. ProfitLogic was acquired by Oracle in July 2005.

Prior to joining ProfitLogic, Rama was the founder and principal of Profit Sciences, an analytics consulting firm, where he advised clients on the design of optimization algorithms to solve complex resource allocation problems. Before that, Rama was co-founder and vice president of product development at Redwood Investment Systems, a software company that built one of the first web/wireless portfolio management systems for quantitative investment managers.

In addition, Rama was a Portfolio Manager at CIBC Oppenheimer, developing quantitative investment strategies, and Engagement Manager at McKinsey & Company, advising Global 2000 senior managers on solving strategic and operational problems using analytical techniques. Rama began his career with the Decision Technologies group of American Airlines, where he worked on building model-based solutions for a variety of airline problems. Rama holds a B.S. in Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Operations Research from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.