Whether you work for a Fortune 500 corporation, a small company, a government agency,
or a not-for-profit organization, if you’re reading this introduction the chances are you use
Microsoft Excel in your daily work. Your job probably involves summarizing, reporting, and
analyzing data. It might also involve building analytic models to help your employer increase
profits, reduce costs, or manage operations more efficiently.
Since 1999, I’ve taught thousands of analysts at organizations such as 3M, Bristol-Myers
Squibb, Cisco Systems, Drugstore.com, eBay, Eli Lilly, Ford, General Electric, General Motors,
Intel, Microsoft, NCR, Owens Corning, Pfizer, Proctor & Gamble, Tellabs, the U.S. Army, the
U.S. Department of Defense, and Verizon how to use Excel more efficiently and productively
in their jobs. Students have often told me that the tools and methods I teach in my classes
have saved them hours of time each week and provided them with new and improved approaches
for analyzing important business problems. Most of these classes used Excel 2003
or Excel 2007. With the added power of Excel 2010, you can be more productive than you
ever dreamed! To paraphrase Alicia Silverstone in the movie Clueless, Excel 2007 is so five
years ago.
I’ve used the techniques described in this book in my own consulting practice to solve many
business problems. For example, I use Excel to help the Dallas Mavericks NBA basketball team
evaluate referees, players, and lineups. During the last 15 years I have also taught Excel business
modeling and data analysis classes to MBA students at Indiana University’s Kelley School
of Business. (As proof of my teaching excellence, I have won MBA teaching awards for 25
consecutive years, and have won the school’s overall MBA teaching award five times.) I would
like to also note that 95 percent of MBA students at Indiana University take my spreadsheet
modeling class even though it is an elective.
The book you have in your hands is an attempt to make these successful classes available to
everyone. Here is why I think the book will help you learn how to use Excel more effectively:
■ The materials have been tested while teaching thousands of analysts working for
Fortune 500 corporations and government agencies, including the U.S. Army.
■ I’ve written the book as though I am talking to the reader. I hope this approach
transfers
the spirit of a successful classroom environment to the written page.
■ I teach by example, which makes concepts easier to master. These examples are
constructed
to have a real-world feel. Many of the examples are based on questions
sent to me by employees of Fortune 500 corporations.
■ For the most part, I lead you through the approaches I take in Excel to set up and
answer
a wide range of data analysis and business questions. You can follow along with
my explanations by referring to the sample worksheets that accompany each example.