Microsoft Excel Data Analysis and Business Modeling (Bpg-Other) [Paperback]

Wayne L. Winston (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 25, 2004 | ISBN-10: 0735619018 | ISBN-13: 978-0735619012

Master the techniques that business analysts at leading companies use to transform data into bottom-line results. For more than a decade, well-known consultant and business professor Wayne Winston has been teaching corporate clients and MBA students the most effective ways to use Microsoft Excel for data analysis, modeling, and decision making. Now this award-winning educator shares the best of his classroom experience in this practical, business-focused guide. Each chapter advances your data analysis and modeling expertise using real-world examples and learn-by-doing exercises. You also get all the book’s problem-and-solution files on CD—for all the practice you need to solve complex problems and work smarter with Excel.

Learn how to solve real business problems with Excel!

• Create best, worst, and most-likely scenarios for sales
• Calculate how long it would take to recoup a project’s startup costs
• Plan personal finances, such as computing loan terms or saving for retirement
• Estimate a product’s demand curve
• Simulate stock performance over a year
• Determine which product mix will yield the greatest profits
• Interpret the effects of price and advertising on sales
• Assign a dollar value to customer loyalty
• Manage inventory and order quantities with precision
• Create customer service queues with short wait times
• Estimate the probabilities of equipment failure
• Model business uncertainties
• Get new perspectives on data with PivotTable dynamic views
• Help predict quarterly revenue, outcomes of sporting events, presidential elections, and more!

On the CD:

• Practice files for all the book’s exercises
• Solutions for problem sets
• Fully searchable eBook

A Note Regarding the CD or DVD

The print version of this book ships with a CD or DVD. For those customers purchasing one of the digital formats in which this book is available, we are pleased to offer the CD/DVD content as a free download via O'Reilly Media's Digital Distribution services. To download this content, please visit O'Reilly's web site, search for the title of this book to find its catalog page, and click on the link below the cover image (Examples, Companion Content, or Practice Files). Note that while we provide as much of the media content as we are able via free download, we are sometimes limited by licensing restrictions. Please direct any questions or concerns to [e-mail].

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Wayne L. Winston is a professor of Decision Sciences at Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business and the recipient of more than 30 teaching awards. For the past 20 years, Wayne has also taught Fortune 500 companies how to use Excel to make smarter business decisions. He has written 15 books on Excel, management science, and mathematics in sports.

Product Details

• Paperback: 624 pages
• Publisher: Microsoft Press (February 25, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0735619018
• ISBN-13: 978-0735619012
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.3 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #332,870 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Wayne L. Winston is a professor of Decision Sciences at Indiana
University, Kelley School of Business and has earned numerous MBA teaching
awards over the past two decades. Wayne also consults for several Fortune
500 clients. He and his business partner Jeff Sagarin developed the
statistics tracking and rating system used by the Dallas Mavericks
professional basketball team. Wayne is also a two-time Jeopardy champion.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

54 of 58 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars CD has MANY, MANY mistakes...., August 25, 2004

By 

D. Lamont "cloud" (Hackensack NJ) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Microsoft Excel Data Analysis and Business Modeling (Bpg-Other) (Paperback)

The idea behind this book is great.
The book introduces and expands on many different 'useful' formulas and tools included within Excel.
The problems at the end of each chapter allows the reader to use what was just learned in developing spreadsheets to solve realistic accounting problems.
Even the 'above average' user of Excel, I believe, will learn from this book.
The CD even has an electronic version of the book, so you don't have to carry the book around everywhere.
The main problem: the CD STINKS !!!! It has MANY, MANY errors.
From forgetting to take into account given growth rates detailed in a problem (therefore yielding incorrect answers) to just plain sloppy copying of sheets (forgetting to delete the drawings and numbers not pertinent to the current sheet).
As said in a prior review, if an updated CD were to become available, with the CORRECT ANSWERS on it, this would be a definite 5 star.
(This said, perhaps finding the errors on the CD could be a means of developing your spreadsheets skills):)

46 of 49 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Non-Traditional Uses of Excell, May 24, 2005

By 

John Matlock "Gunny" (Winnemucca, NV) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Microsoft Excel Data Analysis and Business Modeling (Bpg-Other) (Paperback)

This book is aimed at a level slightly higher than the total beginner. On page one, for instance he assumes that you understand the statement SUM(A5000:A5049) means. Then he points out that writing SUM(USSales) would make it easier to understand. He then describes how to name a range of cells -- Not exactly what I'd call advanced, but certainly above novice.

The first third, or so, of the book is on these kinds of slightly advanced procedures that you could get out of several Excell books. After that he kind of turns the approach around to things like "Estimating a Demand Curve." This is looking for what you want to do rather than just looking at a technique within Excell.

Many of his chapters have fairly sophisticated subjects, "Incorporating Qualitative Factors into Multiple Regression." In this chapter he then looks at multiple factors that might go into predicting things like predicting sales, predicting the Presidential race - with fairly surprising results.

In a couple of chapters he has a bit of fun, i.e. Chapter 73 is "Picking Your Fantasy Football Team."

Excell is quite a powerful package. It can be used for a lot of things beyond just filling out an expense account. In this book a lot of non traditional uses are described in a very light but informative manner. It is a very well done book.

42 of 46 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Too many errors!!!, August 9, 2005

By 

Harry P. "Harry P." (Irvine, CA USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Microsoft Excel Data Analysis and Business Modeling (Bpg-Other) (Paperback)

I am not an advanced Excel user, but it is easy to find out that this book has many mistakes in coordinating the problem descriptions with the solutions, as well as typos in the book, when referring to certain cells. So, I do not know which of them should be corrected, but it is hard and time consuming, at least for a novice user, to understand what is going on. The solutions to advanced problems have no explanation, which on one hand is good because it makes you try to think...on the other hand though, it is such a disappointment to find out that the solutions you try to understand are wrong!! You can easily find it out by doublechecking with pen and paper...