Statistical Methods for Decision Making (SMDM)

Duration: 16 hours

Course Description
Organizations are surrounded with numerical data and information. All of us in day-to-day routine
use numbers in our calculations. Problems in business contain a great degree of quantitative
element in the form of facts and figures. It is essential for managers to carry out data analysis and
interpretation for effective decisions. In this context, they need to prepare quantitative arguments to
justify their decisions. Decision making using statistical methods is the answer for accomplishing this
purpose. SMDM focuses on the role of Business Statistics in helping organizations take effective
decisions with minimum risk.

Course Objectives
After completing this course, you will be able to:

 Understand and appreciate the most widely used tools of business statistics which form the
basis for rational and sound business decisions
 Focus on problem recognition and test hypothesis/model in the context of managerial decision-
making.
 Develop skills in analysis and interpretation of data
 Handle challenging problems using appropriate analysis tool

Course Prerequisites

 The students are expected to have knowledge of basic mathematics at the plus two level
 Knowledge and ability to effectively use Microsoft Excel
 Students are expected to read beyond the classroom that includes reference books and
reference learning material.
 A thorough reading of the topics and case problems before coming to the class

Pedagogy
The objectives envisaged in this course will be met through Interactive Lectures, Case Studies, and
Computer Exercises. Statistical Analysis using R will be the principal driver of learning.

Course Content

 Data collection, presentation and visuals, measures of central tendency, dispersion and
correlation
 Introduction to probability and distributions
 Hypothesis testing and estimation
 Test of independence
Advanced Statistics (AS)

Duration: 16 hours

Course Description
Multivariate Statistical techniques are important tools for understanding Analysis of Dependence and
Analysis of Interdependence. The techniques covered in this course would help you in testing for
differences between groups, estimating and predicting the impact of an independent variable on a
dependent variable, and characterizing the underlying factors, given a set of items, that best
summarize the data using dimension reduction techniques.

This course provides students with a working knowledge of basic concepts of most important
multivariate techniques, with an overview of actual applications in various fields. A reasonable level
of competence in hypothesis testing is needed.

Course Objectives

The course objectives are to help develop a working proficiency of statistical concepts for decision
making. :

 Select appropriate multivariate statistical techniques for answering the appropriate research
questions derived from the problem statement.
 Understand the various assumptions needed for the various methodologies and testing of
assumptions.
 Analyze and draw inferences from data using appropriate statistical methods and computer
software.
 Be able to identify the merits and limitations of various statistical techniques

Course Prerequisites
A thorough understanding of basic statistical concepts, especially setting up and testing hypotheses,
is required.

Pedagogy

The objectives envisaged in this course will be met through Interactive Lectures, Case Studies,
Computer Exercises, and Group Discussion. You will be exposed to R Programming for data
analysis and application.

Course Content

 Goodness of Fit
 Basics of ANOVA, ANOVA with interaction effects
 Regression Analysis (Simple linear Regression, Multiple linear Regression)
 Factor analysis
 Principal Component Analysis

Optimization techniques

Duration: 16 hours

Course Description

The Optimization course aims to develop abilities and skills in the selection and use of modelling
procedures in problem and decision situations in organizational settings. It also aims to develop
critical evaluation skills in relation to these procedures and skills in carrying out independent project
work relevant to real-life problem-solving.
Decision-Making is an essential part of the management process and pervades the activities of
every business manager. In view of the fast-changing environment and increasing complexity of the
real world, there is a much greater need for acquiring the requisite skills for decision-making by
scientific and systemic methods.

Course Objectives
The course is application oriented and it continues to use a problem-solving approach. The purpose
of this course is to provide the participants with a sound conceptual understanding and application of
various scientific methods and techniques for business decision-making in an efficient and effective
way. After going through this course, the participants will be able to structure, analyze and solve
real-life optimization problem situations in their working environment.
Pedagogy

The objectives envisaged in this course will be met through Interactive Lectures, Case Studies,
Computer Exercises, and Group Discussion.
Course Content

 Linear programming and applications

Introduction to Analytics
Duration: 12 hours
Course Description
The course “Introduction to Analytics” take the participants from a mere journey of concepts into the
practical world of Business Analytics, through a complete Analytics problem showing what are the
tools and techniques applicable at each stage. Participants are exposed to the various steps
involved in an analytics problem, the results and outputs but not how to actually arrive at them. The
latter will be done when those concepts are done specifically in the program. This art of modelling a
business problem, then finding the solution using analytics, and finally implementing it successfully
are the hallmarks of PGPBABI program.
The principal aim of course ‘Introduction to Analytics' is to introduce the participants to a powerful
open-source statistical tool named 'R' used widely in the field of data science. R is usually used
when the task requires special analysis of data for standalone or distributed computing. It comes
with an enormous library of predefined functions and it can be integrated into many environments
and platforms. This is primarily an introductory course where participants will be exposed to R and R
studio, syntax and various R commands.

Course Objectives
The participants will be able to:

 Get a good appreciation of analytic techniques with an applied orientation

Course Prerequisites

 Students are expected to come to the class with R and R Studio already installed in their
Laptops.

Pedagogy

 Introduction to R will be interactive, practical and hands-on session.

Course Content

 Introduction to Analytics
 Overview of Analytics Techniques with examples

o Introduction to R and R Studio
o R-Packages
o Getting Help in R
o Reading different data types in R
o Basic summary statistics with R
o R Basics (Syntax, data types, Vectors, Matrices, Factors, Data frames & Lists)
o Working with data-frames (referencing, sub-setting, sorting, Merge & appending, data
manipulation,Apply family, cbind and rbind)
o Understanding data graphically (Histogram, bar plot, ggplot)
o R-Markdown
o Missing Value Treatment
o Exploratory Data Analysis using R (Univariate & bivariate analysis, cross-tabs and
correlation)
The aim of the BABI programme is to enable a transition into an analytics role in your career. It is the
true reward for your hard work and best use of the knowledge that you have acquired during the
programme. To ensure that this transition happens successfully, you should put in enough thought
and efforts in this direction, from very early on in the programme. To guide you in this regard and
help you plan this preparation, we are conducting a 4-hour analytics career workshop.

The agenda of the workshop include:

 What is analytics
 Career Options in Analytics
 Making the Analytics career transition
 Writing an Analytics resume
 How to prepare for Analytics interviews

A significant part of the workshop deals with how best you can leverage your BABI programme as a
substitute for the prior experience that most recruiters ask for. This includes doing in-depth projects
and assignments and even hunting for live data to work with. None of these things happen overnight.
Live data is not handy. And given that you are working full time, there is limited time available to
make these projects a reality.
The other significant portion of the workshop is driving home the point that you have to pilot some
analytics work in your current job. This is easier said than done. Right from finding the time,
identifying the problem and getting hold of the data, pulling off these pieces of work takes
perseverance and time.
Given these two points, we believe it is in your best interest to get introduced to the idea of career
transitions very early in the course. This will help you chart a plan for all the work that needs to be
done in the BABI programme and at work, so that when you graduate you have an analytics CV that
will attract the attention of the recruiter. Hence, we will be doing this in the 3rd/ 5th residency. We urge
you to approach this with an open mind and extract maximum benefit. It is never too early to start
this activity. This framework is relevant across experience bands – the only thing that changes is the
role you will transition into.

A disclaimer here – for folks who do not want to transition into an analytics career, the second half
of the session will not be very useful. The initial half which speaks of what is analytics will still be of
significant value.