Continuing Education

The Center is currently offering the following one-day seminars in open enrollment and company-specific formats:

Turning Data into Insights for Competitive Advantage by Creating a Data-Driven Culture

We now live in the age of data. Through the use of computers, cell phones and other smart devices, we generate enormous amounts of data that companies can use to better understand their customers, track their products, more effectively utilize resources and increase productivity and the bottom line. In this course, you will learn how some of the world’s leading companies have leveraged business analytics to turn data into insights for better decision making and create a data-driven culture that leads to superior strategic, tactical and operational decisions.

Don’t be Data Duped: What Every Executive Should Know about Analytics

Social media, smart devices, and the internet of things all generate massive amounts of data. Not surprisingly, more and more companies are using analytics, data science, and artificial intelligence to become more efficient and provide better goods and services to their customers. In this course we will illustrate through real examples how you as an executive/manager can be an intelligent consumer of analytics to augment and improve your decision making.

Data Science and Analytics for Executives

In this course we provide an overview of what it takes to be successful using data science and analytics.  Topical coverage includes success stories in analytics, types of analytics and their application to problems in business, and the data infrastructure required to support analytics and data science

Visual Analytics and Influencing

In this course we discuss best practices in data visualization and how to influence with visual analytics. Topical coverage includes best practices in design, clarity, emphasis, choice of chart, and how to get your important message across to influence your audience.  Hands-on exercises in Microsoft Excel and Powerpoint will be utilized.

Prescriptive Analytics – What’s a manager to do?

Prescriptive analytics differs from descriptive and predictive analytics in that prescriptive models yield a course of action to follow. That is, the output from a prescriptive model is a plan for management to follow. Applications in business including production planning, location analysis, supply chain design, transportation, marketing/product design and financial portfolio analysis will be discussed. This course includes hands-on experience using open-source software (Open Solver) in Microsoft Excel, and R for Optimization.

More courses will be coming soon.

For more information: Contact Shannon McKeen (mckeensd@wfu.edu).