The Increasing Relevance of a Business Analytics Degree

We live in the age of data. Think about it… from multi-billion-dollar tech giants to small local companies, every business is trying to collect customer (potential and existing) data in any way possible. They collect and analyze every single piece of information about the customers to make better decisions in their marketing efforts. This practice has existed for a long time, albeit in different forms throughout history.

But is the practice of huge data collection and analysis limited only to the marketing forefront of things? No. If anything, there is more analysis going on at the management side of businesses right now.

The Age Of Instinct Is Dead

Okay, that might be a very bold statement but hear me out. Yes, there is still the element of human intuition present in business decision making. But only to a certain degree. Back in the old day’s management would collect simple data and try to anticipate future opportunities/ threats and hope to make the best possible decision. But as technology has evolved so has the ways of collecting data and interpreting them. Data now is far more complicated and voluminous in nature than ever before. It’s simply not possible to make good decisions without having the knowledge of these data and their interpretation methods or having someone on the payroll with knowledge of these data and their interpretation methods.

Business Analytics: The New Cool Kid In Town

From income statements to KPI analysis, Business Analytics has tools and concepts that range from simple to extremely complex. Business Analytics has ended the perception that analyzing data is something only for investments and marketing and has recently started to garner a lot of attention from business executives. And why wouldn’t it! It not only helps in investment and marketing but also in most other aspects as well. By taking these large amounts of raw and complicated data and turning them into valuable information that can be used as insight into improving the efficiency of every department. Also, it’s numerous models such as predictive models, decision models, etc. can act as a huge game-changer for a company if used properly. Here are some of the top Business Analytics software being used today-

1. Looker
2. Birst
3. QlikView
4. Board
5. Logi Analytics
6. Domo
7. Tableau
8. Power BI.

( Source: www.selecthub.com )

Why a Master’s in Business Analytics?

In recent years there has been an influx in demand for Business Analysts. As mentioned before data now is more complicated than ever. For a traditional manager conducting business analysis with this set of complex and intricate data is not a viable option at all. Furthermore, creating different models necessary for the available data can only be done by someone with the knowledge and expertise of the various tools and software available for business analysis. Failure to adopt these practices in this day and age can only mean disaster for a company. Especially since companies are trying to do everything to make informed decisions. It helps to quantify and measure elements that may have previously been thought to be unmeasurable. Like job optimization, where instead of judging every employee through a simple output-based methods management can now know through performance ratios and other models exactly how to tweak some aspects of a job to get the most out of employees and to actually understand through statistical data which job is better for which employee. And all of this data has to be made understandable for the decision-makers by a business analyst.

So for anyone who wants to stay ahead of the game, it’s pretty clear how much a Master’s in Business Analytics will make you better equipped for the near future. As we head towards more and more accessibility, it’s the analysts who can make sense of the large pile of incomprehensible data we’ll be drowning in.

Here’s the list of top 5 universities for getting a Master’s in Business Analytics-

1. MIT (Sloan), Cambridge (MA) – Master of Business Analytics
2. Imperial College Business School, London – MSc Business Analytics
3. Texas (McCombs), Austin (TX) – Master of Science in Business Analytics
4. ESSEC/CentraleSupelec, Singapore – Master in Data Sciences & Business Analytics
5. ESADE, Barcelona – MSc in Business Analytics

( Source : https://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/business-masters-rankings/business-analytics/2019 )

Of course, the requirements for enrollment in this subject varies from university to university. But one thing is for certain that applicants need to have a Bachelor’s degree with a minimum of 3.00 CGPA. For students with backgrounds different from Business, they may need to meet some additional requirements as set the universities.

Content Creator: Touseef Salam | Email: touseefsalam97@gmail.com