Module Directory

This module provides students with a number of key skills and techniques, which will enable them to make quicker and smarter decisions in the face of increasing uncertainty and complexity.

The module will focus on organising, visualising, computing, and analysing data to provide insights which can then act as inputs into the decision-making process. The approach will use both theoretical and practical concepts. It will concentrate on the applicability of a range of statistical and computational methods in data driven decision making.

By the end of this module, students will be expected to be able to:

1. Have obtained a critical understanding of principal-driven and data-driven approaches in statistical computing and modelling which can be used to analyse data for answering real-life questions.


2. Have developed key analytical skills of analysing data using modern software tools and techniques from an application point of view.


3. Have gained overall perspective on the importance of data analysis and statistics in both strategic and tactical decision making faced by decision makers in the modern business world.


4. Critically differentiate between the questions which can be tackled using qualitative methods and those which require statistical analytical techniques.

The importance of data driven decision-making cannot be overstated in today's big data era. Decision makers including private equity investors, venture capitalists, analysts, entrepreneurs, management consultants, and business managers are increasingly facing a very complex business environment and have to make decisions which potentially could have a huge impact on not only the business unit in question, but also on employees, stakeholders and society at large.

While the problems have become more complex, decision makers have also at their fingertips, access to vast amounts of data as well as tools which can help them analyse the data. The ability to understand the data and use them to support their decisions is increasingly proving to be a necessary skill in a decision maker's portfolio.

The lectures will be developed around the key theoretical concepts of modern statistical computing and modelling, and how they are generally utilised in analysis and answer real business-oriented questions. The lecture material provides an overall view of how to use multiple methods in statistical computing and methods, based on the nature of the question posed as well as nature and source of available data.

The seminars will focus on practical aspects of using the material taught in lectures for solving real life problems. They will use freely available datasets to learn and practise the use of statistical methods taught in the lectures in a practical context. They will give the students hands on practice of the freely available statistics software SPSS, which has a whole range of functionalities from basic to advanced along with excellent graphing qualities.