Spreadsheet Models for Managers


Getting Access to Spreadsheet Models for Managers


If Spreadsheet Models for Managersyou use Excel to model businesses, business processes, or business transactions, this course will change your life. You’ll learn how to create tools for yourself that will amaze even you. Unrestricted use of this material is available in two ways.

As a stand-alone Web site
It resides on your computer, and you can use it anywhere. No need for Internet access.
At this Web site
If you have access to the Internet whenever you want to view this material, you can purchase on-line access. Unlimited usage. I’m constantly making improvements and you’ll get them as soon as they’re available.

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Order "Spreadsheet Models for Managers, on-line edition, one month" by credit card, for USD 69.95 each, using our secure server, and receive download instructions by return email.
Order "Spreadsheet Models for Managers, on-line edition, three months" by credit card, for USD 199.00 each, using our secure server, and receive download instructions by return email.
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Make your check payable to Chaco Canyon Consulting, for the amount indicated:
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And send it to:
Chaco Canyon Consulting
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Cambridge, MA 02138

To use the course software you’ll need some other applications, which you very probably already have. By placing your order, you’re confirming that you have the software you need, as described on this site.

Spreadsheet Models for Managers

Temporal response 4/4
Session Links
  • Many business process models involve time evolution
  • Typical problems:
    • If you hire a new employee, their productivity is initially low, but develops over time
    • When you introduce a new product, you often have an associated short-term training burden that declines over time in your installed base
    • When you first initiate service to a new client, snags and confusion may be common, but eventually things clear up
  • How do you conveniently model time-varying processes in a time-varying environment?
    • Use analysis — first model the “base response” to a simple input
    • Use synthesis — find total response to a sequence of delayed simple inputs
  • This summing of base responses is easy with macros
Readings: Convolution

This page gives the motivation for our study of temporal response. We’re focusing on modeling systems that respond to an initial stimulation with a behavior that changes over time. Not all systems work this way.

Here’s an example of a system that does not display a time-varying response. Suppose we’re modeling the available capacity of the company parking lot. It seems obvious, but when we hire someone, there is a certain probability that they will need a parking space. Let’s say that for the facility in question, that probability is 96%. Thus, when someone is hired, on average, on their start date, parking space capacity drops by 0.96 spaces. The response of this system to a new hire is instantaneous, and it isn’t time-varying.

On the other hand, if we examine the demand for movie tickets in the HR department’s movie ticket program, we find that each new hire takes some time to discover the availability of this benefit. In fact, very few ever do start buying their movie tickets through the HR department, but when they do, there is a learning curve that determines how long it takes people to start using the program. This is an example of a system that does have a response that varies over time.

Last Modified: Wednesday, 27-Apr-2016 04:15:26 EDT

Avoid Unnecessary Spaces in Formulas

The space character, in many cases, doesn’t change the value of a formula. For instance, these two formulas return the same value:

  • =A1 + 2
  • =A1+2

Some people think that well-placed spaces make formulas easier to read. Although that might be true, the practice is both inconvenient and extremely dangerous. More

Keyboard Power Tips

Excel’s online help, and many of the how-to books you can buy, provide long lists of keystroke shortcuts for carrying out specific operations, such as inserting rows, selecting regions, or deleting columns. And they are useful.

But the true power of the keyboard comes not from using these particular commands. Rather, it comes from learning combinations that are useful for particular situations that you encounter frequently.

For instance, there’s no command for deleting the rows that contain the selected cells, but there is a combination:

  • Shift+Space selects the rows that contain the selection.
  • Ctrl+- deletes the now-selected rows.

And so, Shift+Space Ctrl+- deletes the rows containing the selection.

Learning a vast array of keystroke commands is probably less useful than learning the keystroke combinations that do exactly what you need to do most often.