Course: Financial Analysis for Business Performance: Data-Driven Decision Making

Last week we explored the importance of building a culture around data analysis and insights. We’ve also reiterated that the emergence of data-driven organisations has resulted in a new competitive …

Does data matter? The volume of data available for decision-making has grown exponentially in the last few years. Information pours in from digital platforms, mobile phones, wireless sensors, etc—but why …

The traditional role of financing in business has shifted from mere reporting to insights-driven decision-making. As we saw last week with the evolution of cost management, emerging technologies in automation, …

For Chief Data Officers to achieve business impact, they need to use the insights value chain, which has the two key components. Technical value—eg data, analytics (algorithms and technical talent), …

A decision tree is a chronological representation of the decision process, which, as you know, can be very complex. A decision tree is made of two types of nodes. Decision …

In the previous step we gained a broad overview of performance metrics, noted the importance of integrating impact and financial metrics, and outlined three different monetary-based techniques available to businesses …

The rise of data-driven decision-making has sharpened our focus on two increasingly important dimensions of business in the 21st century: analysis and insights. ”Leaders at all levels of government are …

So far, we’ve looked at three broad approaches to cost-cutting. While businesses can choose the approach that fits their goals best, cash flow management is a technique all businesses engage …

What does cost control look like in action? How have managers felt about their key roles here (ie the managing behaviour and evaluating performance)? Consider a dramatic example, the global …

The evolution of financial analytics has created the need for a new set of skills. As organisations upgrade their workforce across different functions, including finance, a reasonable demand for analytical …

High performing organisations understand that what has happened can help them anticipate what will happen. Leaders and influencers at these companies know that the greater their analytics capabilities, the smaller …

Cost control (also known as cost attainment or cost management) focuses on identifying and reducing business expenses to increase profits. Cost controls are the levers businesses pull to improve financial …