Business Analysis Fundamentals for Management Consultants

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 to you the case. You will be asked to estimate the market for ceramic tiles.

In this lecture, I will show you the logical structure of 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 the next few lectures, we will repeat the Excel functions that will be useful later when we will be solving case studies. We will discuss the following sections:

• VLOOKUP

• HLOOKUP

• MATCH

• IF
  IFERROR

• Pivot Tables

If you are familiar with that you can skip these lectures and move on to management consulting tools and techniques

Enjoy the content and if you have any questions please let me know!

In this lecture, I will show you how to use one of the most useful functions - the VLOOKUP

We will also look at the so-called approximate match with vlookup

In this lecture, we show you what you can use the VLOOKUP function for. It is one of the most widely used functions that simplifies a lot of things

We start with basic VLOOKUP Usage just to show you the flavor and basic construction of VLOOKUP.

We start with basic VLOOKUP Usage just to show you the flavor and basic construction of VLOOKUP.

VLOOKUP can be used to assign categories. This helps you easily by creating rules divide data into segments, cohorts and analyze them, draw conclusions

HLOOKUP is a cousin of VLOOKUP. It is not that often used independently but has some serious application when combined with VLOOKUP

Another useful function is the so-called MATCH. We will see what it gives you.

In this lecture, I will show you how to assign categories using VLOOKUP and MATCH. You have the categories described in the matrix and you want to use them

In this lecture, I will show you how to assign categories using VLOOKUP and HLOOKUP. MATCH can be used as an alternative to the HLOOKUP

IF function can be very problematic. I will show you in this lecture why is not always the best choice

We start with showing you how to use the IF function

In many cases IF can be replaced successfully with VLOOKUP. I will show you how to do it and what are the benefits

In some cases, you need to use IFERROR. It can be used as a replacement for IF or independently

Sometimes make sense to use MIN and MAX instead of IF. I will show you how and when to do that

Let's briefly see how we can use pviots

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

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 I will show example of an issue tree in Logistics

Here I 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

I 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 

I will show you what you will master in this section

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. 

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

Before I show you the model in Excel I 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.

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

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 

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 

We start now cases that will help you strengthen your position as a Business Analyst with strong analytical skills

In this lecture I will show what cases we will solve in this section

In this lecture I show you the solution to the case you had to solve in the previous lecture

Imagine that you were asked to estimate the kid’s ware market

• What do you mean by kids?
• What products do you have in mind (i.e. toys, pampers,t-shirts)?
• Do you want the market to be estimated in volumes or in values?