supriya kamble

17-08-2018

In one of my previous ventures, we followed these simple principles and were able to build a fast growth multi million dollar business within 2 years of starting the company. 1. Goal: Set a SMART goal that you would like to achieve in your small business. (E.g Revenue Target, Market Position or share, etc) That will set the direction and the pace for the rest of the things that follow. 2. Value: Deliver Value to your customers like no one else can - be it on quality or price point or features or services. This will make sure you know your market and your product/service. 3. Team: Invest in the right team that is needed to help you reach those goals. Be mindful of “whats in it for them” to be truly successful. You take care of your employees, they will take care of your customers. 4. Cash Flows: Have a hawk’s eye on the Cash Flows. In super simple terms, what is the net liquidity (cash) held by your company at month end. This will make sure you understand your costs and you profits. If you have a non financial background, do try and get a simple understanding of the Balance Sheet, the Income Statement and the Cash Flow Statement. The more complex aspects of business can now rest on one or more of these pillars. Reply

supriya kamble

17-08-2018

Business analysts are wildly used in not only in consulting, PE, VC and controlling departments but more and more in marketing and growth teams. The exact mix of skill that are the best fit obviously depends on the industry and area but some seem universal: 1. Market research. Whether you are analyzing ways of improving production or efficiency of marketing activities you will have to do some sort of market, competition or consumer research. Therefore, be aware of the methods and resources available. Go through overview of market research methods to see how big is the arsenal. If this is not enough you can also take a short course on market research methods (with examples in excels). 2. Excel is your master. Excel will be your daily bread, your dearest friend to learn how to present the problem in Excel an how to use it to solve them. Have a look at some nice examples of such an analyses. More examples of intermediate and advanced analysis carried out in consulting you can find in my on-line course. The essential Excelthat you have to know you can find in this presentation 3. Programming - always helps to be able to programming a bit - you can automate your work and sometimes invent a new product, I would recommend at least mastering VBA for Excel - that solves 80% of cases. If you can go further you can try Learn to code or extensive course on programming (went through it is quite ok). You can also use Codecacademy for free 4. Learn to simplify complicated methods. Learning some theoretical economics would be a great idea. If you did not have it in your studies or you would like to revise: Theory of Industrial Organization. Learn also small tricks like bottom up approach, top-down approach, issue tree, benchmarking that will make your life much easier 5. Learn how to select the right things and do them fast.As a businessanalyst you have to work 10x faster the the customers you are working for. You cannot achieve it through normal means so you have to be smart and selective. You have to master 80/20, identifying low hanging fruits, removing bottlenecks and many other tricks that will give you advantage over your customers. Have a look at the most often used by management consultants productivity hacks and tricks 6. Selling and marketing - as analyst you also have to learn to properly express yourself so that your voice is heard. Do not shy away from it. Have a look at techniques used in consulting for selling expensive services 7. Writing in a clear and coherent manner. Analyst sometimes want to tell you everything at the same time. They do not structure their thought properly and sometimes don't see the difference between important and not important. Therefore, learn to be clear and understand. For more tips how to do it have a look at The Minto Piramid Principle 8. Be efficient and make the team efficient as well. For some practical tips on this have a look at: 4-hour Workweek, Getting Things Done, The Gold Mine: A novel about Lean Turnaround, The Gold Mine: A novel about Lean Turnaround Understand the drivers behind different business models. Every business model has 3–5 drivers that make it or break it. In Consulting you learn how to identify them and exploit them. Have a look at examples of such drivers for on-line business models. Check also my presentation on how to become a world class business analyst - here you will find summary of most useful techniques with examples. You can find also useful staff on this playlist devoted to consulting Reply

supriya kamble

17-08-2018

Get to know your industry inside out. Look for ideas in other industries. Find parallels between your product/services and other great partner companies and copy them. It is a little bit of everything and being very scrappy helps. My approach (and it may not work for everybody) is to consume a lot of media and follow a lot of people and really try to figure out there problems. Ask questions, go to industry events and conferences, be social. It won't be long before you will start to see patterns within the industry you are targeting. It is remarkable how many companies within the same industry are focused on the same strategic objectives at exactly the same time. For example, are companies in the industry you are trying to target on a cost savings rampage? Are they looking to retain more customers or are they looking to increase basket size? Every industry has a cyclical focus and knowing what that can really supercharge your results. Reply

supriya kamble

17-08-2018

Business analysis is the process of studying a business or any other organization to identify business opportunities / problem areas and suggest potential solutions. A wide range of people with various titles, roles and responsibilities actually apply business analysis techniques within an organization. There are three fundamentally different flavors or levels of business analysis: Strategic Business Analysis at the Business Planning Level Tactical Business Analysis is Done during Project Initiation Operational business analysis is done within the IT project Strategic Business Analysis is the study of business visions, goals, objectives, and strategies of an organization or an organizational unit to identify the desired future. It encompasses the analysis of existing organizational structure, policies, politics, problems, opportunities, and application architecture to build a businesscase for change. Tactical Business Analysis is at the project or initiative level to flush out the details of the proposed solution and to ensure that it meets the needs of the business community. Operational Business Analysts work on specific business applications. In an Agile approach, they are members of the development team and will be heavily involved in User Story elaboration and Iteration or Sprint Planning. In very large organizations, individuals with job titles such as Product Manager, Product Owner, Developer, Manager, Subject Matter Expert, etc. actually do business analysis at every level. In smaller organizations, a single individual is often responsible for all scales of business analysis. Regardless of who is wearing the business analysis hat, he or she may or may not have the title Business Analyst. Reply

supriya kamble

17-08-2018

Watch the video “An Introduction to Business Analysis Techniques” This video is based on a study of over 1700 individuals with many different job titles who used business analysis techniques at some level of detail irrespective of the Software Development Method (SDM). Reply