Leading With Data· a Bicycle Guide

Partial book profile

Business Analytics Data Analysis Decision Making (MindTap Course List)

A comprehensive textbook that teaches business students and professionals how to analyze data and make quantitative-based decisions using Microsoft Excel and its powerful add-ins.

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What it’s about

In a business world drowning in data, this book serves as a practical guide for non-quantitative majors to gain a critical competitive advantage. It takes a hands-on, example-based approach to teach the fundamentals of business analytics, integrating statistics, decision analysis, optimization, and simulation. Using the ubiquitous Microsoft Excel, along with powerful commercial add-ins, readers learn not just theory but the tangible skills to transform raw data into actionable insights. This book is designed to turn casual spreadsheet users into power users who can confidently build models, perform sophisticated analyses, and make data-driven decisions in finance, marketing, operations, and beyond.

The through-line

Who it’s for
A business student or professional who needs to analyze data and make quantitative-based decisions to succeed, but is not a specialist in mathematics or statistics. They want to be competent and effective in a data-driven world and add immediate value to their courses and career.
The problem
They face complex business problems involving large amounts of data and significant uncertainty, and they need to make sense of it all to make good decisions. They feel overwhelmed by data, intimidated by quantitative methods, and unsure how to apply abstract theories to practical business situations. They fear being less capable than their more technically-trained peers.
The plan
  1. Master fundamental concepts for describing and finding relationships in data.
  2. Learn to use probability and statistical inference to make decisions and draw conclusions under uncertainty.
  3. Apply advanced methods like regression, optimization, and simulation to predict outcomes and find the best course of action.
  4. Gain hands-on proficiency with Microsoft Excel and powerful analytical add-ins through realistic business examples.
The payoff
Becoming a confident and competent 'power user' of Excel for business analytics. · The ability to analyze complex data sets to uncover valuable insights and inform strategy. · Making better, more defensible, data-driven decisions that lead to improved business performance.

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Additional reading

  • Everybody Lies: Big Data, New Data, and What the Internet Can Tell Us About Who We Really Are · Stephens-Davidowitz, S.

    Discussed in the introduction as an interesting example of using big data (from Google searches) to gain new and important insights into human behavior.

  • The Quants · Patterson, S.

    Referenced in Chapter 1 as a great overview of how quantitative techniques have been used in the financial world, highlighting both their successes and their dangers.

  • Out of the Crisis · Deming, E.

    Deming's famous '14 points' for quality management are discussed in the online Chapter 19 on Statistical Process Control, making this a key foundational text for that topic.

  • The Loyalty Effect · Reichheld, F.

    The simulation model on customer loyalty in Chapter 16 is based on the discussion of this topic in Reichheld's influential book.

  • Smart Choices · Hammond, J., R. Keeney, and H. Raiffa

    Recommended in Chapter 6 for a nontechnical discussion of decision-making, complementing the chapter's formal, quantitative approach.

  • Operations Research: Applications and Algorithms · Winston, W. L.

    Written by one of this book's authors and referenced multiple times for readers who want deeper technical details on optimization algorithms like the simplex method.

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