Dr. Duru Ahanotu is a graduate of Stanford University with over twenty-five years of experience doing analytic modeling, executing pricing strategies through price optimization, and implementing, developing, and selling enterprise software. He adds to this industry experience another five ...
more Dr. Duru Ahanotu is a graduate of Stanford University with over twenty-five years of experience doing analytic modeling, executing pricing strategies through price optimization, and implementing, developing, and selling enterprise software. He adds to this industry experience another five overlapping years of research in knowledge management and organizational learning. Duru Ahanotu, Ph.D. founded Ahan Analytics, LLC (Ahan is pronounced "Ah-hon") to deliver sustainable, data-driven approaches for improving business performance. He recognizes the unique challenges companies face in leveraging their data to increase revenues, become more efficient, and drive profitability. Before launching Ahan Analytics, LLC, Dr. Ahanotu was last a Sales Consultant in the Advertiser and Publisher Solutions (APS) group within Microsoft Advertising. In this capacity, he provided product knowledge, functional expertise, and technical support to APS account executives who sold APS’s suite of media monetization products. He led product demonstrations and increased the productivity of the sales team by training and certifying employees on the use and demonstration of the software. Dr. Ahanotu took on this role after Microsoft acquired his former employer Rapt, Inc. Rapt provided software solutions for maximizing revenue and yield for online media publishers. With Rapt, Dr. Ahanotu last served as an Engagement Manager for a software implementation for a $100 million on-line publisher with a rapidly growing business. With his project team, Dr. Ahanotu created and coordinated novel approaches to inventory forecasting, structuring of product hierarchies, and ETL across software systems for order management, advertising delivery, and Rapt’s software. He also generated a step-by-step methodology for interpreting and using the results of price optimization. As a Solutions Architect, Dr. Ahanotu served as the lead Solutions Consultant on client engagements and provided technical assistance and guidance to Solutions Consultants on other projects. Dr. Ahanotu designed and implemented price optimization solutions, demonstrating expertise in mathematical modeling, pricing, data analysis, SQL, and relational data models. He led discussions with customers and internal teams to improve implementation processes and product design. Dr. Ahanotu held oversight responsibility for the analytic modeling for two projects using Price Director, Rapt’s price optimization software. Each project supported pricing decisions in Fortune 50 businesses: one business was a leading online media publisher, and the other was a rapidly growing technology company in a low margin business. Dr. Ahanotu helped the latter client integrate Price Director into pricing workflow. As part of this first-ever client implementation of Price Director, he worked closely with Product Management, Analytic Development, and Software Engineering to ensure that early-stage product functionality met client needs. Dr. Ahanotu contributed several new methodologies for implementing Price Director analytics and conceptual frameworks for training clients on these analytics. He is a contributor on a related Rapt patent: “Method and System for Producing Optimized Prices for Products for Sale.” Dr. Ahanotu presented a white paper on the pricing of New Product Introductions at the 2006 INFORMS Annual Meeting. The Professional Pricing Society published this paper in The Journal of Professional Pricing (Vol. 16, No. 1, First Quarter 2007) as “Pricing New Products: Turning Portfolio Uncertainty Into Profits.” Prior to Rapt, Dr. Ahanotu was a consultant with Integral, Inc, a small strategic management consulting firm. During his three-year tenure, he consulted on product development and technology strategy focused on high tech and pharmaceutical companies. Prior to Integral, he developed mathematical programming algorithms for managing and optimizing “Y2K” projects as an independent contractor. Prior to this work, he implemented expert systems for diagnosing and troubleshooting automotive and semiconductor manufacturing equipment as a Business Solutions Project Manager and Consultant for Expert Edge, Inc. Dr. Ahanotu earned a Master’s and Ph.D. in Engineering-Economic Systems (1999), a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering, and Honors in Values, Technology, Science, and Society (1991) - all at Stanford University.
less
Latest Comments
T2108 Update – From The Edge Of A Breakout To The Ledge Of A Breakdown
What is the pattern you have observed to suggest contrarianism is the way to go with the T2108 Update?
T2108 Update – From The Edge Of A Breakout To The Ledge Of A Breakdown
Thanks for the kudos.
T2108 Update – Another Oversold Period Ends As Volatility Continues Pre-Fed Decline
The September rate wrangling is so, so....last flash crash! ;)
Whatever Happened To Optimism ?
Thanks for the sunshine. :) I will quibble just a bit with the fund flow info. At the recent lows, Pisani on CNBC reported a massive surge in redemption orders at the close. THAT could have been the purge of sellers. But time will tell. I also keep seeing headlines about big fund flows OUT of ETFs and mutual funds. But I think outflows supports your contrarian thesis better than inflows. I think it is just human nature to want to chase stocks higher rather than buy them at a discount.
The World Agricultural Outlook Grinds The Teucrium Corn ETF To An All-Time Low
It is a tough space if you are not riding a trend. Currently, too many trends are downward but I wouldn't recommend shorting these ETFs or ETNs to do so. Futures are the best place for trading efficiency, but I have never dared go there. :)
So, my current compromise for CORN: 1) hold a core position in the expectation that an upward trend will get sustained someday soon that recaptures what I think is the long-term bullish outlook, 2) look for entries for short-term trades as I wrote about earlier.
Thanks for reading!
Deducing The Crash In Oil: How Would Sherlock Holmes Drill Beneath The Headlines?
LGIH post up: seekingalpha.com/.../3409056-a-breakout-performance-and-increased-guidance-send-lgi-homes-higher-as-texas-delivers. TPH is the regional with a lot of building in California. They are also undervalued.
Deducing The Crash In Oil: How Would Sherlock Holmes Drill Beneath The Headlines?
I think the analysis should also take into account what happens to the savings consumers gather from the cheaper gasoline and other petroleum-based products. Even if they are not spending the money on other goods, they are likely using it to pay down debt. That alone can relieve a lot of stress for a lot of non-oil families. Let's see which effect is the bigger. I have an article coming out soon summarizing the amazing results of LGI Homes whose base is in Texas and saw crazy sales numbers in Houston.
The increase in rig count in Canada may not be so good if all it does is add supply to an over-supplied situation.
I am also surprised you didn't weave in the demand side. Could it be that the persistent weakness in oil prices is also revealing how weak the global economy is in general, in particular China? I believe oil demand in the U.S. is already on a secular decline...
But overall, I loved the article as usual. Great narration weaving Sherlock in there!
And now imagine what is going through the collective mind of the Federal Reserve. I think it would be unprecedented to start tightening policy in the face of such a collapse in prices in this large a part of the economy!
The Canadian Dollar Slips On An Oil-Slicked November GDP Report
This is actually an old article that TalkMarkets accidentally republished from my site. But yes, the entire commodity complex is in collapse mode now!
T2108 Update – Another Completed Cycle Of Fear
Why worry? :)
Millennial Regret
Great article! I love the flourish and sentimental overtones. It sounds like true American dream. I think it is also a good story to remind us of the value of *ownership* in an era where the sentimentality of attachment, bond, and commitment are being casually tossed about and overboard. I particularly loved the references that remind us how inflation have really bitten us in ways that go unmeasured: very few families can afford to get by on just one paycheck, no one could ever hope to pay off a mortgage in a matter of a few years, etc, etc...!
I will soon read the links you posted that give some hope on the desire for home ownership. I also summarized findings from a related Fed survey here: seekingalpha.com/.../3230496-using-the-feds-report-on-economic-well-being-to-gauge-prospects-for-the-housing-market
-- Dr. Duru