By the end of 2013, LinkedIn published the list of the most wanted skills of the year. Data Mining reached the fifth position. In the USA alone, it's expected that thousands of openings will be available in the field in the following years. Consequently, B-Schools are increasingly including topics related to Data Mining, or more particularly Business Analytics, in the curricula of their management programs. Most recently HEC Paris partnered with IBM to design a MBA program specifically focused on Big Data Analytics.Meanwhile, in Latin America, companies are showing interest on the methodology and related technologies, but they find it difficult to locate the skilled personnel.This article offers a view on the benefits and challenges that companies in the region may find when adopting data mining solutions, the opportunities for the specialized professionals and the role of business schools in satisfying corporate needs for talent.Big Data: utility and applicationsAccording Goncalo Pacheco de Almeida, director of the Business Analytics initiative at HEC Paris, the program originated with the goal of offering MBA students training in this methodology.

"It's about enabling them to develop the necessary skills to become the leaders of the future, so we have organized new courses within the Strategy Specialization". In the long run, HEC's main goal is to instill in companies a data oriented mentality.In a report published by McKinsey&Co -"Big data: The next frontier for innovation, competition, and productivity"- Big Data is defined as "datasets whose size is beyond the ability of typical database software tools to capture, store, manage and analyze". The definition is intentionally vague because each industry can be able to generate different sizes of database, so the analytical tool can be different according the information needs.Pacheco de Almeida further explains that the school considered the organization of the new program due to the many applications of these technologies and the advantages that companies can find from the use of these solutions.

"Business analytics is relevant to better understand the habits and shopping trends of consumers. It also provides critical feedback to managers about branding, and it helps to improve organizational design with intelligent information obtained through data processing. Socially, it can contribute to a better healthcare system and commercially it helps to increase retail sales".However, Miguel Angel Canela, professor of Management at the Spanish IESE Business School, says he rather waits before expressing too much expectation, "it has to be proven with time. There's a lot of interest right now, but its real benefits or potential to transform the business landscape or management practices has to be tested yet. Companies are finding huge amount of data in storage, without any clear idea of what to do with that, how to benefit from the analysis. Except for the same companies that everybody talks about, Amazon, Google, Facebook and a few others, the rest haven't been doing a lot".But Canela points out that marketing has been the most impacted department, even inside other industries other than IT. "Big Data Analysis is applied in marketing to better understand and know the customers and use that knowledge to target specific market clusters, and to personalize the message. It is highly relevant to the customer-managed relationships (CMR).On the other hand, Pacheco de Almeida argues that "analytical skills are critical within this context, where information flows in increasingly complex ways."As head of Intel in Latin America's Business Unit, Lorena Sequeira also finds a wide range of applications to data mining within the corporate environment. Sequeira points out "how big volumes of data can be used to better financial planning, to tune the production line through improved schedules which would have a more accurate notion of the shopping cycles, and the availability of supplies and skilled staff. All these leading to more information for the decision making process".Industry's needsDue to the technological impact, companies store a growing amount of data, and information that flows faster, hence the need to shorten the gap between the collection and storage functions and the moment to implement decisions.Sequeira expects a growth in the applications and benefits from data mining. She explains how Intel is moving toward anticipating the needs stemming from new software and more efficient, specialized solutions.

"We are talking about billions of storage units, it is impossible for a human being to read it all in a lifetime. That's why Intel is focusing on software development, in creating technologies that enable easier ways to analyze data to reduce processing times from hours to minutes. It would allow the availability of useful information and a more effective decision making process".On the other side of the software evolution and technological development there is the need to find the talent able to use the methodology and understand it. There can be found the Latin American Achilles' heel, as suggested by Alfredo Araneda, technology manager at the Chilean office of Michael Page. "We see how people are not 100% trained, or can't use the tools. Then the whole process gets delayed, and sometimes the work is done using a totally different methodology than the originally planned. We find the most trained and expert professionals outside the region, or the country".Nevertheless, at a global level, Canela argues that big corporations are demanding more knowledge related to business analytics, the same way English language is mandatory, "companies adopt these solutions and then see the return of valuable information which doesn't entail great amount of investment. With cloud services everything is easier. Talent however is indispensable but hard to find, hence the rise in wages".In this sense, Araneda points to the importance of management influencing a better use of resources, "some companies spend millions in software, but then find themselves with no trained employees to use it".To try to satisfy the need, global B-Schools are implementing specialized programs such as HEC Paris MBA. Or complement the contents of an all-encompassing MBA program like IESE does.Given the relation between offer and demand, in terms of the available graduate programs and the industry demands for talent, there is a gap to fill in Latin America.Most efforts are being made by the most important schools, such as TEC de Monterrey or the University of Chile. The emphasis is on the education of engineers with such skills, but not on introducing these topics to business people, so they can have a better understanding of the limitations, potentials and challenges of Data Mining.