Masters Certificate in Analytics for Leaders

Whether your organization is looking to implement a data analytics program from scratch, take your use of data to the next level, or simply learn how to do it more effectively, this course will increase your fluency in the domain, and round out your knowledge of the skills necessary to successfully analyze, interpret, communicate and present data with confidence.

The program is structured in standalone modules which can be taken individually by managers from any sector or functional department.

The first two modules allow participants to quickly get to the heart of business applications for data analytics, and to learn the communication and presentation skills required to ensure its successful integration into the organization’s managerial processes. The final module offers a deep dive into the foundations of predictive and data analytics. Participants must take all three modules to receive their Masters Certificate.

Key Program Take Aways

The program has been designed to give participants knowledge of:

• Different analytical approaches to enhance strategic business decision-making for increased performance or profitability.
• The role of data in customer acquisition and retention to create competitive advantage and improve marketing and sales strategies.
• The softer skills critical to successfully leading analytics projects in organizations, including communication, presentation, negotiation and exerting influence.
• The ability to summarize, interpret and derive insights from data, and incorporate uncertainty in decision making.

Unique Program Features Include

• Comprehensive, in-depth coverage of material for an actual understanding of how to do real analytics
• In person, hands on training by high quality professors and leaders in the field – not available online
• Derived from Schulich’s MBA Business Analytics concentration; incorporates content and skills most requested by industry leaders
• Only open enrolment analytics program with data visualization and machine learning components
• INFORMS CAP® (Certified Analytics Professional) recognized program

How technically demanding is the program?

The modules have been developed for non-data scientists, and do not require a high degree of prior technical knowledge. Some topics make use of math but only for explanation or demonstration purposes. All participants require is an openness to learning.

Course content details

Module 1 5 days

Marketing Analytics

Introduction to Marketing Analytics (1 day) For both B2B and B2C organizations to become customer centric they need to be laser focused on meeting customer needs. Marketing analytics helps you achieve this focus by giving you enhanced knowledge of your clients, which in turn allows you to develop segmented campaigns and promotions that keep them happy. In this one-day introductory workshop, participants will participate in a real time simulation in which they compete against each other to increase the sales of their products via the use of an analytical dashboard.

The simulation lays the groundwork for a deeper dive into the fundamentals of customer relationship analytics, with specific attention paid to three fundamentals concepts:

• Recognizing the limitation of statistical models
• Understanding the application of different model types
• Evaluating model design given specific data types

Data Insights and Interpretation (1 day)

The ability to understand and ask the right questions of your data is a powerful competitive advantage, resulting in new income streams, better decision making and improved productivity. This session will demonstrate the concepts, skills and methods to find the key message of the data, and turn it into information, insight and intelligence. Participants will learn how to use the data – whether it’s structured data in Excel, unstructured data in social media, research results presented in reports, slideshows, dashboards, or infographics – to create an interesting, engaging, and impactful business story.

• Learn how to focus on the most important parts of the data and ignore the clutter that confuses information
• Learn the steps to transform data into insight and business intelligence
• Be able to analyze a data set, summarize the key findings and make it presentable to clients or management

Marketing Strategy (2 days)

We do not collect, analyze, and interpret data just for the sake of doing an exercise. There is no inherent value in the endeavour unless we do something about it. In this module you will learn how to develop successful marketing (go-to-market) strategies by answering three important questions: (1) How should we segment our customers? (2) What value propositions should we develop for each segment? (3) Have we given customers a reason to do business with us and not someone else?

• Recognize that marketing is an analytical process of creating and capturing customer value
• Understand the three principles behind successful customer segmentation
• Learn how to build and communicate a strong brand to differentiate your business in the marketplace

Digital Marketing Analytics (1 day)

What outcomes do you expect from your website or mobile applications and how do you measure success? Digital analytics helps you answer these questions – using qualitative and quantitative data from your business and your competitors to drive continual improvement of the online experience.

• How to establish business objectives for various types of websites; including affiliate sites, company pages, and search engine links
• Typical user actions that align with marketing funnel pathways
• How website and mobile development and functionality can supportbusiness objectives
• Examples of both “macro” and “micro” conversions – from selling productsand services to helping users research and request information
• What experiences drive the right outcomes by using data that reflectsindividual online behavior

Module 2 5 days

Analytics & Leadership

1. Leading with Analytics (1 day)

It is not always clear where and how analytics can help your company succeed. Even worse, it can sometimes seem like everyone is speaking a different language! This session will help you harmonize your organization and lead it to greater success by pairing your expertise about the business with an understanding of where and how data science can help. You’ll also learn how to collaborate effectively with experienced data scientists and to mentor novice analytics professionals to engage in the business.

• Describe applications of exploratory, explanatory, predictive, forecasting and prescriptive analysis
• Identify the best corporate analytical strategy to drive success
• Frame business problems for data and analytics answers
• Identify and manage different communication and work styles and overcome communication barriers among data team members

1. Data Governance of Big Data (1 day)

Data privacy is a vital management planning concern. Ensuring proper business ethics and governance of data is essential across industries. During this module, participants will review and discuss real life business and public sector examples to strategically manage legal or ethical problems, ranging from perception to compliance to data sovereignty.

• Security, privacy, sovereignty, and ethical considerations of big data collection, warehousing, and analytics use
• Options for privacy protection and data governance including policy creation and enforcement, rights and responsibilities of all parties
• Governance strategies, implications, associated obligations, and models

1. Overview of Big Data Tools (1 day)

How are today’s most forward-thinking organizations using big data analytics and data science to make more informed business decisions? This opening session will explain all of the terminology and allow participants to see innovative examples of Big Data applications from different sectors – and begin evaluating how their organization can grow through more effective use of data analytics.

• How Big Data relates to cloud, mobility, security, social media and online business activities
• How Big Data analytics drives competitive advantage in your industry
• Big Data tools and others, and their usefulness

1. Leadership Skills (1 day)

You can measure your leadership by the confidence that your team members, your partners, your customers and the public have in you. Achieving your strategic plan requires people to be inspired by your vision and commit to it. But to be successful in this regard you need to be yourself. Your ability to connect with others, to communicate, to influence and inspire defines your leadership strengths. In this session, participants will learn to:

• Differentiate management and leadership
• Develop self-awareness
• Craft communications that inspire and incite action
• Engage stakeholders effectively
• Create a culture of collaboration

1. Negotiating and Influencing Skills (1 day)

Negotiating with and influencing people effectively are important skills gained through experience and effective training. During this module, participants will learn the art and science of negotiating, as well as new skills, strategies, and behaviours needed to influence others and achieve better ‘win- win’ outcomes.

• How to gain agreement on difficult and contentious issues
• How to achieve team commitment to deliverables
• When to apply the three primary ways to influence others (power/rights/interests)
• An “interest-based” approach to negotiating and influencing with others
• An influencing “toolkit” for all situations
• How to negotiate past barriers to help both parties get “unstuck”

Module 3 5 days

Predictive Analytics and Big Data

1. Data Visualization with Tableau (2 days)

The rate at which data is generated and managed has increased exponentially in today’s information-based economy. Data visualization is both an art and a science which seeks to communicate information clearly and efficiently to users in an abstracted, schematic form. In this session participants will use visually interactive Tableau software to quickly:

• Differentiate between statistical graphics, plots, information graphics, tables, and charts
• Analyze, develop insights, and make conclusions about data and evidence
• Make complex data more accessible, understandable and usable
• Choose the most effective visualization technique for the task at hand

1. Data Science (2 days)

Data Science extracts knowledge or insights from data in various forms and clearly communicates these findings to clients and end-users. Participants will be introduced to the field to data science, including current and future trends, intended business applications, and major technical categories. Through case analyses, participants will learn a comprehensive set of metrics to assess the precision of their analysis and tools to make statistically sound decisions.

• The essential elements of any successful data science project
• How to prepare analytical reports and project proposals
• Evaluation metrics, and how to understand performance graphs
• How to distinguish superficial results from truly meaningful information
• Recommendation system, (i.e. Netflix), and online targeted display (i.e. Amazon recommendation system) case studies

1. Introduction to Regression Analysis (1 day) As organizations collect more data through advances in technology, business managers have improved opportunities to make data-driven decisions. This module teaches participants how to use regression analysis to identify the relationships between different business and data variables and make future predictions with statistical support.

• How to use regression analysis in your organization
• Identifying what variables will predict an outcome in a particular population or data segment