What is the aim of this course?
This course will help you drastically improve your knowledge and skills in business analysis through a series of practical cases. It is designed for people who want to become business analysts or management consultants, work in management consulting or do a lot of business analyses at their work. It is based on my 14 years of experience as a consultant in top consulting companies and as a Board Member responsible for strategy, improvement, and turn-arounds in the biggest companies from FMCG, SMG, B2B sector that I worked for. On the basis of what you will find in this course, I have trained over 100 business analysts and management consultants who now are Investment Directors, Senior Analyst, Directors in Consulting Companies, Board Members, etc. On top of that my courses on Udemy were already taken by more than 95 000 students.
I teach through cases so most of the lectures will be a case study showing some business problems solved in Excel. I will also show you the main techniques used by Management Consultants to properly structure the business analysis. To most lectures, you will find attached (in additional resources) the Excel shown in the Lecture, so as a part of this course you will also get a library of ready-made analyses that can, with certain modifications, be applied by you in your work.
Why have I decided to create this course? The companies I have worked with so far as a Board Member (I am usually, Chief Restructuring Officer VP responsible for Strategy and Development) still have a huge problem with proper analyzing intermediate and advanced issues – they are usually preoccupied with current activities and have close to no time for analysis and strategic decision. Moreover, they do not know how to approach many subjects from the analytical point of view to make sure that they are making the right decision. Therefore, quite often they hire consultants who in turn lack the practical knowledge and experience. This course is my small contribution to improving both consulting as well operational and strategic analyses in FMC, SMCG, B2B companies including also online models like e-commerce, SaaS, marketplaces.
In what way will you benefit from this course?
The course is a practical, step-by-step guide loaded with tones of analyses, tricks, hints that will significantly improve the speed with which you do the analyses as well as the quality of the conclusions coming out of available in your company data. There is little theory – mainly examples, a lot of tips from my own experience as well as other notable examples worth mentioning. Our intention is that thanks to the course you will know:
How to structure business analysis so you get the right results fast?
How to analyze different aspects of sales, marketing, operations?
How to draw conclusions from those analyses – both for current operations as well as strategic ones?
How to be efficient in your work as a business analyst or management consultant?
How to build Excels and PowerPoints so that it is understandable for you and your team, even after some time?
You can also ask me any question either through the discussion mode or by messaging me directly.
How the course is organized? The course is divided currently into the following sections:
Introduction. We begin with a little intro into the course as well as some general info on the role of business analyst – what skills, education, knowledge is required from you and what are the available career paths for you
How to create a top-notch business analysis in 8 steps. In this section, I will show you how to structure a business analysis so you get the results you want fast.
Ceramic tiles market estimation – example of business analysis. In section 3 I will again show slowly 1 example of business analysis from beginning till the end
Improving the results of a cinema – example of business analysis – example of business analysis. In section 3 I will again show slowly 1 example of business analysis from beginning till the end
Tools. In the second section, we briefly go through the main tools and concepts for business analysts. We devote some time to the most popular ones: Excel and PowerPoint
Sales & Marketing. Analyzing the market, sales activities and efficiency, the potential for expansion are some of the most typical tasks set for business analysts. Here I provide you with plenty of practical real-life examples of problems and solutions
Business modelling – example of analyses. On some occasions, you analyze the whole business to see what is the logic behind it. Here we show how to do for some of the business models
Operations. Quite often the business performance depends on Operational Excellence. In this section, we will show you examples of analysis from logistics, production, production planning, and other supply chain issues.
Cases for training analytical skills – Market Estimation. This section will help you train your analytical skills using the market estimation cases
Cases for training analytical skills – Sales and Marketing. This section will help you train your analytical skills using the sales and marketing cases
Cases for training analytical skills – Strategy. This section will help you train your analytical skills using strategic cases
Cases for training analytical skills – Operations. This section will help you train your analytical skills using operational cases
We will be adding new sections in the coming months
You will be able also to download many additional resources
Excels with analyses shown in the course
Presentation of slides show in the course
Links to additional presentations and movies
Links to books worth reading
In this lecture we will explain why it makes sense to take the course, what you will get out of it and what you should look forward to. We will also explain the logic we used to build the course
A few words about your humble teacher
I will show you how the course is organized
Here I will show you what to do if a blurry image appears
Here I will show you how to find additional resources attached to the coruse like Excel files, presentations, links etc.
In this section I will show you how to create a top-notch business analysis in 8 steps. This framework I will use later on all analysis that you will be shown here
You may find it a bit surprising but the business analysis should be started from the end – the very slides you want to get as a results of your effort. It should also have the hypotheses that you are checking. Here I will show you how to do it
Most analysis will be done in Excel. Before you go into Excel it is better to construct the analysis on a piece of paper. If you have clear logical structure it will be easier to transfer it to Excel
Here I will show you the case that we will work on in this section. Have a look at the case and try to solve it on your own before you go any further
In this lecture I will show you the logical structure to the case presented in the previous lecture
Once you are done with the logical structure you should build the analysis in Excel on the basis of it
Here I will show you how to do the estimation in Excel for the previously mentioned case
Once the Excel is done you can move on to gather data to check your first rough estimation
The data you have gathered will be used in your business analysis. You can also fill in the slides prepared in the very beginning and modify it if needed
It’s time to discuss your analysis with some experts and the customers to validate its results
We summarize the whole process of preparing the business analysis
In this section I will do I little bit faster another case using the framework introduced in the previous section
Here I present you the case. You will be asked to estimate the market for ceramic tiles
In this lecture I will show you the logical structure to the case presented in the previous lecture
Once you are done with the logical structure you should build the analysis in Excel on the basis of it
The data you have gathered will be used in your business analysis. You can also fill in the slides prepared in the very beginning and modify it if needed
In the next section I show how to estimate the potential improvement in a cinema
In this lecture I will show you the case you have to solve. As a first step you will have to define the KPIs that matter in the cinema business
In this lecture I will show you the logical structure to the case presented in the previous lecture
Once you are done with the logical structure you should build the analysis in Excel on the basis of it
The data you have gathered will be used in your business analysis. You can also fill in the slides prepared in the very beginning and modify it if needed
In this section I will show you the main techniques that you should master to be greate at performing business analyses
Here I show basic rules for Excel that you should follow
Here I show you a link to external resources where you can learn more about Excel that you should mastera
Power Pointe presentation is the second most important tools to be used by Business Analyst in his work. After all it is not only important to analyse data and draw conclusions but also to show them in a nice manner to decision makers. Here you will learn basic rules on how to build your Power Point deck in fast and easy manner. You will see also some examples of good and bad slides. There are many advanced tools for presentation (i.e.) Prezi. Still Power Point is the most often used and widely accepted
In this lecture you will get to know our favorite method for first rough estimation – the bottom-up method. We give you also 2 examples with Excel calculation how to use it.
Top-down is the little brother of bottom-up approach – not used that often but still very useful for re-segmenting the market (niche an low cost strategy)
In this lecture I show the backward thinking /induction. This approach enables you to design the whole process, company on the bases of the expected outcome
In many cases you can get high end result from compounding effect in time or by getting small improvements in many areas. In this lecture I will explain the concept
Issue tree is a simple yet powerful concept used in consulting for structuring discussion and picking the right topics to concentrate on. In this lecture I will show you the principles of using it as well as a practical example
Here IÂ will show example of an issue tree in Logistics
Here IÂ will show example of an issue tree in Retail
Opportunity tree is a tool that you can use to generate new ideas to improve your business by looking at main drivers of your business
We show here how to use the so called OEE (Overall Equipment Efficiency) Analysis that shows you how efficient you are in using your resources. It is very useful for checking whether you use well machines and equipment
If you want to understand well a business you have to be able to identify the cost drivers that shape the business model. In this lecture I will show you how to do that
In every company you have bottlenecks that limit your ability to go forward and deliver more goods and services. Here I will show you how to estimate what is the impact for the whole system and how you can remove improve them. I will use simple production example to show you the effect on the whole system. You will see how the bottleneck can shift from 1 shift to another. You will also learn how to prioritize where it make sense to invest to get the best results.
Before doing this lecture I strongly encourage you first to take the OEE lecture – we use the OEE concept here so if you are not familiar with it please start with OEE lecture as a warm-up.
Here I present you a very useful techniques 5 Whys used to get down to the root cause, the real problem
IÂ will show you what you will master in this section
In this lecture we show how you can measure and analyze what is the maximal reach of your B2B bussiness having in mind transportation costs and markups. We will provide you with fast way to identify potential customers and measure your targeted price on a specific foreign market
Here I will show you how to see which marketing activities you should bet on
In this lecture you will learn to calculate sales and margin density for a Retailer using pivot and sumifs function. I will also show you what conclusion you should draw from it.
Most producers / brand owners operate using many sales channels: wholesalers, own shops, e-commerce, marketplace etc. It makes sense to check how profitability looks across channels and what can e done to improve overall situation. I will show you how it cane be done with a simple Excel analysis and a pivot table. I will go also try to demonstrate what kind of conclusions can you draw and what should be your next steps, on the basis of the results you are getting form the analyses
We start by looking how you can estimate how many stores can a reatiler open. Here we will discuss the theory of reaching saturation point and in the next lectures we will use case study to do proper analysis
We will now try to check in practice how to find saturation point for a retailer. In this lecture I will introduce the case that we will work with for the next few lectures. You will be asked to find the saturation for grocery store operating in Poland
Here I will show you the data we will use for solving the case study
In this lecture we solve previously introduced case.
In this lecture we solve previously introduced case.
In this lecture we solve previously introduced case.
In this lecture we solve previously introduced case.
Let’s imagine that you have to decide which method to support sales reps that work for retailers will be the best one. Help you customer analyze which method is better. We will discuss what other methods are used by your competitors and what you should pay attention to in order to decide which methods is better
In this lecture I will show you the solution to previously introduced case study
In this lecture I will show you the solution to previously introduced case study
In this lecture I will show you the solution to previously introduced case study
In this lecture I will show you the solution to previously introduced case study
In this lecture I will show you the solution to previously introduced case study
In this lecture I will show you the solution to previously introduced case study
Imagine that you are working for a ceramic tiles producer that wants to change the frequency at which customers are remodeling its houses. Your task is to analyze and decide which way is the best
There are some standard ways to make people shorten the lifespan. In this lecture we will discuss them
In this lecture I will show you the solution to previously introduced case study
In this lecture I will show you the solution to previously introduced case study
In this lecture I will show you the solution to previously introduced case study
In this lecture I will show you the solution to previously introduced case study
In this lecture I will show you the solution to previously introduced case study
In this lecture I will show you the solution to previously introduced case study
In this lecture I will show you the solution to previously introduced case study
The impact of the price change on your profit will depend on a few factors. I will discuss in this lecture on what you should take into account and how to calculate it .
In this lecture I will show you how to solve the case shown in the previous lectures
In this lecture I will show you how to solve the case shown in the previous lectures
IÂ will show you what you will master in this section
As a business analysts or a consultant you will have to from time to time create financial models. There are a bit different than business models. In business models you go into details of operations and you focus on getting the links on the KPIs. Those models are usually done for internal purposes, to manage in the right direction the business. Financial models on the other hand are more for external users. You concentrate in them on creating the picture of the business in a standardized, understood by everybody way. You also want to create the financial statements: profit & loss statement, balance sheet statement, cash flow statement
Before IÂ show you the model in Excel IÂ want to present you in this lecture the overall logic
I show you in the lecture the model of the consulting firm in Excel. After modifying it you can use it for your purposes (we attach the Excel files to the lecture). This model will let you check whether your business idea makes sense.
I show you in the lecture the model of the consulting firm in Excel. After modifying it you can use it for your purposes (we attach the Excel files to the lecture). This model will let you check whether your business idea makes sense.
In this lecture you will get insight into the business model of different e-commerce companies. E-commerce businesses group is very diversified so we will try to show the similarities and the differences between concepts.. You will learn here the definition of this business model, see some examples of companies using this business models. You will also understand what really matters in this sort of business, what KPIs you should look at and what values you can expect.
In this Lecture I will go through a business model of e-commerce and show you how you can model the behavior of the customer, acquisition methods and margins in Excel. Attached to this lecture you will find the file that I show in the video so download it and go through it. You can use it to model the e-commerce business you are analyzing
Excel gives you great opportunities to calculate whether your idea makes sense or not. For this you will use the knowledge you have gathered in the previous lectures on your concept, location and your customers. Excel is obviously less emotion than you and the model you will create here can be used as a cornerstone of your business plans. It shows also to banks and potential investors what is your cash flow. We start with a simple model so you can understand it and learn how to use it.Â
In this lecture we make more advanced model. We introduce the traffic parameter and show how it is converted first into people that are engaged (stop and enter your restaurant) and later into customers (they buy something from you). Here we will be operating on 2 customer groups: first one eats at the restaurant; second one comes for take-aways. For both customer groups we calculate separate conversion rates and Average ticket (ATV). We still here show you a business model for a 1 restaurant
Here I will show you how you can analyse different aspect of sales and marketing. Examples will be taken from different industries - both B2C and B2B
We show here how to use the so called OEE (Overall Equipment Efficiency) Analysis that shows you how efficient you are in using your resources. It is very useful for checking whether you use well machines and equipment
In every company you have bottlenecks that limit your ability to go forward and deliver more goods and services. Here I will show you how to estimate what is the impact for the whole system and how you can remove improve them. I will use simple production example to show you the effect on the whole system. You will see how the bottleneck can shift from 1 shift to another. You will also learn how to prioritize where it make sense to invest to get the best results.
Before doing this lecture I strongly encourage you first to take the OEE lecture – we use the OEE concept here so if you are not familiar with it please start with OEE lecture as a warm-up.
In this lecture you will learn how to calculate optimal batches and how to estimate savings when comparing to actuals batches. We will use his an example of juice producer
2-stage production planning (planning for assembling and bundles). In many cases you have to first prepare the components and then on the basis of this produce the end product. This requires certain amount of additional planning, especially taking into account that the same component can be in different end-products. I will show you here on the basis of example of cosmetics producer how to create such a production plan, assuming optimal production batches for components and taking into account the inventories.
During this lecture I will show you how on basis of small number of data create a model which will show you how logistics costs are created, on what stage and what is the biggest drivers. This in turn will enable you to apply 80/20 rule
In this lecture we will give you some tips how to approach the case and show you the usage of the proper Excel functions
In this lecture we solve the case with you, show you the outcome, interpret it and give you examples how the results can be presented in terms of Excel and slides
Let’s have a look at car producer that is wandering which plant should supply to which country
In this lecture I will show you how to use solver to find optimal solution to the case of planning the flow of finished goods between factories and markets