Consulting Strategic Analysis

1.5 Credits · Level: Graduate

Strategic Business Analytics (SBA) is the second of two elective courses that prepare students for strategic problem-solving roles – and especially for careers in management consulting or in-house strategy and business development. MGMT 581 is not a pre-requisite for MGMT 582, although it is certainly helpful to have taken it. Both FMC and SBA are founded upon the central premise that consulting firms want people who are extraordinary problem-solvers and that problem-solving is a structured process that can be learned and applied. SBA adds a complementary premise – that effective problem-solving depends upon robust analysis, which increases your confidence that you’re drawing the right conclusions and making the right decisions. With that in mind, the emphasis of SBA is on gathering and analyzing facts efficiently through the application of proven analytical methods. The course is multi-disciplinary, data-intensive and applications-based, drawing upon insights and skills first developed by students in core courses such as Strategy, Economics, Managerial Statistics, Strategic Problem Solving, Operations and Accounting. This is not a course in power computing, big data mining, financial modeling, or market research – although it will draw upon each of these topics. Together in class and in study teams, we’ll de-construct and analyze business cases through a series of structured processes and analytical methods, including (but not confined to): Discovery-Driven Planning; Market-Sizing and Selection; Profit Pool Analysis and ROI Trees; Business Model Economics; Technology Adoption Factors; Product and Customer Profitability; Conversion Chains and Funnels; and Predictive Analytics. We’ll do this through detailed analytical exercises in class, in study groups and individually. We’ll deploy a distinctive SBA toolkit; and we’ll underpin this with selected reading and reflection.