SMBA6003: Data Analytics and Modelling

One of the most significant developments associated with the digital revolution is the increased availability of data. For managers and leaders in contemporary organisations, the ability to effectively analyse and draw useful inferences from data is critical. It is also important that managers can communicate complex interrelationships found in the data to senior management in a way that maximises the possibility that it can lead to favourable and sustainable change. Access to and use of data is critical to organisations in their need to effectively respond to a more volatile economic and financial environment, and Government intervention and regulation.Superior data analytic and modelling capabilities are increasingly seen as a source of competitive advantage, both for business and for employees working within business. This unit of study can deliver this competitive advantage in at least six distinct ways - (1) it will reveal the type of internal data that an organisation must compile for effective decision making; (2) it will identify the external data that must be used in combination with the internal data, and where that external data is sourced; (3) it will analyse the tools and modelling techniques that can be used to draw timely and relevant insights from a range of different forms of data; (5) it will examine how these tools and modelling techniques can be practically applied across a range of organisational settings; and (6) it will demonstrate how any findings should be communicated to time-poor senior management. As part of this unit of study, students will be given the opportunity to work with real-world data sets and case studies, and to apply those data sets to their own and other organisations.