Mathematical Analysis in Business

Writing formulas so they can be dragged is the key skill for using Excel efficiently. If you are using spreadsheets to solve real problems, you will use this skill every day. It will save you a tremendous amount of time, it will reduce errors in your spreadsheets, and it will greatly expand the set of things you can do efficiently.

In both your professional lives and personal lives, you may need to convert one currency to another. Maybe you have already done this personally, if you have traveled internationally. The conversion may have been physical: handing in your dollars and receiving euros in exchange. Or it may have been virtual: buying a meal in a Danish restaurant with a credit card and seeing the charge, along with the exchange rate, on your statement.

The semester I was on sabbatical, one of the projects I worked on was market research for a company interested in launching a "functional" snack: caffeinated, and therefore energy-enhancing, chocolate. One of the ways we evaluated this idea was through a survey of consumers. In this module, you have a chance to analyze the data from the survey.

AMZN Stock Prices | This module gives you Amazon.com stock price data to analyze. You will see how investments held over different periods of time performed.

Using Probabilities to Communicate Uncertainty | This module is about forecasting: specifically, using probabilities as a way to communicate uncertainty about the future.

This module is set in the context of Kickstarter, a crowdfunding site. You will analyze a database of completed Kickstarter projects and then help two young entrepreneurs make decisions about their own campaign, using benchmarking data from completed projects and market research.

Building a Spreadsheet to Calculate Taxes | This module covers personal income taxes.

Comparing Cell Phone Plans Based on Intended Usage | This module is about cell phone plans. Hopefully you will notice the link between the income tax code and the cell phone plans.

Analyze Pricing for the Orange Juice Category | This module gives you sales and price data for different orange juice brands, across store locations and weeks.

Seeing How Things Turned Out | This module returns to the forecasts from the earlier one where students used probabilities to express uncertainty. In this module, we see how the students did.

Analyze Trends and Plan Orders at the Sandwich Shop | This module gives daily point-of-sale data for a sandwich shop.

Operational and Financial Model | This module covers a sales projection model for a new product.