Seminar & MDP Details



IIM Bangalore

STATE-OF-THE-ART DECISION MODELING AND ANALYSIS
Programme Directors: Profs. Rajluxmi V. Murthy & Ishwar Murthy
August 02 - 04, 2004

Objectives: This course is designed for all those who periodically need to analyse business decision problems using data. The objective of this course is to impart the following important skills to potential "analysts": -

  • How to use the power of the spreadsheet to perform their day-to-day analysis effectively and efficiently.

  • How to use basic modelling tools such as optimisation and what-if analysis to make better informed decisions.

  • How to perform basic data analysis using Excel statistical functions to facilitate day-to-day analysis and decision-making.

  • Introduce tools that model uncertainty in such contemporary problems as valuation of new product introduction, hedging with futures and yield management.

For: This programme is designed to benefit people who are actively involved in the decision making process of their organizations. This includes those who actually take decisions and those who provide analytical support to the decision maker. The former comprises all mid to senior level executives, while the latter includes consultants and analysts - financial analysts, operations analysts, marketing analyst, etc.

Contents: The first part of the course will introduce some of the most useful EXCEL functions that help handle and manipulate data efficiently. Here, functions such as COUNTIF, SUMIF, GOAL SEEK, DATA TABLES and PIVOT TABLES will be introduced in the context of specific business problems. For instance: -

  • Given data with over 10,000 transctions with each cell containing Product Description, Product ID and Price, how to determine average prices in a matter of seconds.

  • Calculate NPV for a project with cash flows that are not periodic.

  • What growth rate in sales will ensure that the project will generate an NPV of Rs. 5 crores?

The second part deals with describing and summarizing data and capturing relationships between various factors. Here, concepts such as Histograms Descriptive statistics, Regression, Correlation and Forecasting techniques Will be covered. This will help in valuable analysis such as: -

  • How to spot outliers in data?

  • How can trends be detected from the data?

  • How can sales be forecasted?

In the third part, how to identify the "best" decision using optimization modeling and sensitivity analysis will be covered. Some typical questions that optimization modeling seeks to answer are: -

  • What product mix should a plant produce to maximize profit?

  • How to estimate the demand curve for a product and come up with the optimal product price?

  • How to optimally allocate a company’s financial resources so as to manage cash flow requirements in the future?

In the last part, Monte-Carlo simulation will be introduced as a tool to model uncertainty. Some typical applications covered will be: -

  • Given uncertainty in the demand, product development cost and variable costs, is it worth while introducing a given new product into the market?

  • How to use futures contracts to minimize the risk of adverse price movements of commodities such as tea, oil etc?

  • Given the uncertainty in the demand for products and services such as hotel rooms, airline and bus seats, how to price them in order to maximize yield?

Fees:
Residential: Rs.22,000/-
Non-Residential: Rs.18,500/-
Foreign (Residential): US $ 800/-

For details, contact: -
Chief Programmes Officer,
Indian Institute of Management Bangalore,
Bannerghatta Road, Bangalore - 560 076.
Phone: 080 - 26582450 Extn. 3203 / 26993203
Fax: 080 - 26584004 / 26584050
E-mail: edp@iimb.ernet.in
Website: http://www.iimb.ernet.in/
Refer: CoolAvenues' MDP Alert