MARC&CO: Providing Comprehensive Yet Easy Platform For All Your Analytics

MARC&CO-China

Kalyan Banga, Founder & Chief Data Scientist of Fusion Analytics World caught up with Mr. Raheel Ahmad, CEO of China based MARC&CO to find out how they are transforming decision making process (smarter and quicker) through marc SMART analytics platform and creating real value for customers.

Would like to know who you are (Founders /Co-Founders ) and what’s your background and why did you chose to join hands together .

We are four people who started this initiative. Three of us are from Pakistan and one is from China. Mudassar and I have a tech and sciences background which reflects in what we are trying to do. Anique and LinJie are economics and finance majors. Their concentration is how to make it better for the firm to function properly and grow exponentially. They don’t like linear graphs that much. So all the developmental side of the business is tackled by them. Mudi is a programming geek with brilliant ideas and he just loves playing around with technology. I, on the other hand, shifted from programming to marketing and data analysis which was the core reason why we decided to start with this initiative. The common trait between us was the love of data. We love data. We love more information because it makes us feel more secure, organized and we are able to take better decisions. If a little extra information can help us out with a lot of daily life decisions, just think of the power of data for the big industries who have accumulated tons of data over many years that is being analyzed by many data analysts but it’s just not that efficient. It’s not centralized. That is where we saw an opportunity for us to provide this idea.

Would like to know how the idea is created and what made you chose that particular idea and who is your inspiration?

The field of artificial intelligence and machine learning is amazing. Just think for a moment how data can change the way retail stores work, for example, I run a retail store and I adopt business intelligence technology. I can predict what you will purchase from the supermarket tomorrow. Not by instinct or not by a guess but by algorithms that follow your pattern. My sensors are tracking your move every second, looking at what things you spend your most time on, how your expressions change when you look at that item, whether you pick it up or put it back, pick it up again. Basically, I am just collecting data about your shopping habits. The data from the sensors is stored into a database and now the action really starts! The algorithms study the data and try to find a pattern. By using big data technology, by your weekly visits, by matching patterns with people like you, my system can predict what you will buy. How amazing is that? It’s dangerous but just imagine the power of it if businesses can know before time that you know, on this day we will be able to sell this to this guy because of these reasons. Amazing. That is where I felt connected and I felt empowered and we decided to work on this. There is no such inspiration but I think the presence and the ability is inspiration enough for one to try to connect to it.

How you chose the brand name and how you executed operational plan and the success story of the same?

The brand name is a long story. Basically, the name MARC is made up of the first letter of our names. Won’t go into much detail but why MARC SMART ANALYTICS? We believe that anyone can use analytics or anyone can make decisions by using data. Sometimes stupid decisions or decisions that are not beneficial. But we believe in just making smarter decisions. Smarter decisions with the aid of data and with awareness. That’s where the name comes from. The operational plan is still in progress. It’s not easy. It’s never a success story unless everyone around the world adopts your vision so we are still in process on finding the end of the rainbow! It’s a long journey.

Would like to know the challenges/hurdles faced till now and how those were overcome successfully and the lessons learnt.

Many challenges!!! Many rejections, many faithless advice and many laughs from people. I think it’s a part of life. You fall down, you get up and life knocks you down again but the key here is persistence. You are never supposed to give up. I won’t go into much detail but the most important lessons that I would like to share are stay focused, don’t give up, think before you make a decision and never give up!

How company is scaling up and what’s its future goals and if you would like to share anything else which can inspire others then please do it.

The company is scaling up pretty good. We are finally done with our product development phase. Testing is half way done and we have started getting good response from the people we approach. Our future plan for the next two years is to expand our operations in China and the subcontinent, as we are highly inclined towards working with the manufacturing industry and finance industry, and just make sure we help companies succeed! We are also hiring a lot of sales people and marketing managers so these options are open for everyone reading this.

Last piece of advice is that just have faith in whatever you believe in, stay focused, be competitive, ask questions, be curious and just work hard!

Profile Status
ACTIVE
Profile Info
 

Kalyan Banga226 Posts

I am Kalyan Banga, a Post Graduate in Business Analytics from Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Calcutta, a premier management institute, ranked best B-School in Asia in FT Masters management global rankings. I have spent 14 years in field of Research & Analytics.

0 Comments

Leave a Comment

four × 1 =