BDM: Business Data Management

Topics covered

• Introduction to Economics

  • Meaning and scope of economics
  • Microeconomics and macroeconomics
  • Economic agents
  • Consumers, producers and markets
  • Scarcity and choice

• Economic Flow

  • Households and firms
  • Factors of production
  • Goods and services
  • Circular flow of income
  • Flow of money and resources

• Basic Economic Concepts

  • Demand and supply overview
  • Market and prices
  • Production and consumption
  • Economic decision-making

• Introduction to Spreadsheets

  • Excel and Google Sheets
  • Rows, columns and cells
  • Cell references
  • Basic formulas
  • Basic spreadsheet functions

• Economics Tutorial Using Excel

  • Entering economic data
  • Performing simple calculations
  • Organizing data in spreadsheets
  • Interpreting calculated results

Expected skills: Explaining basic economic concepts, understanding circular flow and performing simple economic calculations in spreadsheets.

Topics covered

• Demand

  • Meaning of demand
  • Individual and market demand
  • Law of demand
  • Demand schedules
  • Demand curves
  • Factors affecting demand

• Supply

  • Meaning of supply
  • Individual and market supply
  • Law of supply
  • Supply schedules
  • Supply curves
  • Factors affecting supply

• Market Equilibrium

  • Equilibrium price
  • Equilibrium quantity
  • Excess demand
  • Excess supply
  • Changes in market equilibrium

• Elasticity of Demand

  • Price elasticity
  • Elastic and inelastic demand
  • Unit elastic demand
  • Determinants of elasticity
  • Calculating price elasticity

• Elasticity of Supply

  • Price elasticity of supply
  • Elastic and inelastic supply
  • Determinants of supply elasticity
  • Calculating supply elasticity

• Business Applications

  • Pricing decisions
  • Consumer response to price changes
  • Production decisions
  • Demand and supply in business planning

Expected skills: Interpreting demand and supply curves, calculating equilibrium, and analyzing consumer and producer responses through elasticity.

Topics covered

• Business Fundamentals

  • Meaning and objectives of business
  • Business models
  • Revenue and costs
  • Profit and profitability
  • Business stakeholders

• B2C vs B2B

  • Business-to-Consumer (B2C)
  • Business-to-Business (B2B)
  • Differences in customer relationships
  • Differences in buying processes
  • Sales cycle differences

• Introduction to Services

  • Goods vs services
  • Characteristics of services
  • Service delivery
  • Customer experience
  • Service quality

• Organizational Buying Behaviour

  • Organizational purchasing
  • Buying objectives
  • Buying criteria
  • Purchase decisions
  • Stakeholders in organizational buying

• B2B Buying Situations

  • Straight rebuy
  • Modified rebuy
  • New task buying
  • Supplier evaluation
  • Purchasing decisions

• Decision-Making Unit (DMU)

  • Initiator
  • User
  • Influencer
  • Buyer
  • Decider
  • Gatekeeper

• Sales Techniques

  • Understanding customer needs
  • Building relationships
  • Presenting value
  • Communicating benefits
  • Handling customer concerns

Expected skills: To compare B2B and B2C business models, understand organizational buying behavior and identify the role of DMU in sales decisions.

Topics covered

• Spreadsheet Fundamentals

  • Workbook and worksheet
  • Rows, columns and cells
  • Cell references
  • Data entry and editing
  • Formatting cells

• Formulas and Functions

  • Arithmetic formulas
  • Relative and absolute references
  • SUM()
  • AVERAGE()
  • MIN() and MAX()
  • COUNT() and COUNTA()
  • IF()

• Data Management

  • Sorting
  • Filtering
  • Removing duplicates
  • Data validation
  • Conditional formatting

• Data Retrieval

  • VLOOKUP()
  • Lookup concepts
  • Matching values across tables
  • Handling missing matches

• Pivot Tables

  • Creating pivot tables
  • Rows, columns and values
  • Aggregation
  • Filtering pivot tables
  • Summarizing large datasets

• Data Visualization

  • Bar charts
  • Line charts
  • Pie charts
  • Scatter plots
  • Selecting suitable charts

• Business Analysis Using Excel

  • Sales summaries
  • Revenue analysis
  • Market comparisons
  • Basic dashboards
  • Interpreting spreadsheet outputs

Expected skills: Clean, summarize, retrieve and visualize business data through Excel and Google Sheets.

Topics covered

• Introduction to Finance and Accounting

  • Purpose of accounting
  • Role of finance in business
  • Accounting information for decision-making
  • Financial transactions

• Basic Accounting Concepts

  • Business entity concept
  • Going concern concept
  • Accrual basis
  • Matching principle
  • Accounting period

• Balance Sheet

  • Meaning and purpose
  • Assets
  • Current assets
  • Non-current assets
  • Liabilities
  • Current liabilities
  • Non-current liabilities
  • Shareholders' equity

• Capital and Accounting Equation

  • Owner's capital
  • Assets and liabilities
  • Accounting equation
  • Impact of business transactions

• Income Statement

  • Revenue
  • Expenses
  • Gross profit
  • Operating profit
  • Net profit
  • Profit and loss reporting

• Timing Concepts

  • Accruals
  • Prepaid expenses
  • Unearned revenue
  • Outstanding expenses
  • Depreciation timing

• Dividends

  • Meaning of dividends
  • Dividend declaration
  • Dividend payments
  • Impact on equity and cash

• Financial Case Study

  • Interpreting balance sheets
  • Understanding income statements
  • Recording example transactions
  • Connecting financial statements

Expected skills: Understand the components of the balance sheet and income statement, apply accounting equations, and identify the impact of basic financial transactions.

Topics covered

• Financial Statements Overview

  • Balance sheet
  • Income statement
  • Cash flow statement
  • Purpose of each statement
  • Relationship between statements

• Types of Accounts

  • Assets
  • Liabilities
  • Equity
  • Revenue
  • Expenses
  • Debit and credit basics

• Recording Business Transactions

  • Journal entries
  • Debit and credit rules
  • Ledger accounts
  • Trial balance concepts
  • Transaction recording

• Classification of Accounts

  • Balance sheet accounts
  • Income statement accounts
  • Current and non-current classification
  • Revenue and expense classification

• Inventory Valuation

  • Inventory and cost of goods sold
  • FIFO
  • LIFO as a conceptual method
  • Weighted average cost
  • Effect of inventory valuation on profit

• Depreciation

  • Meaning of depreciation
  • Straight-line method
  • Written-down value method
  • Depreciation expense
  • Accumulated depreciation
  • Impact on asset value and profit

• Cash Flow Statement

  • Operating activities
  • Investing activities
  • Financing activities
  • Cash inflows and outflows

• Impact of Business Transactions

  • Effect on assets and liabilities
  • Effect on equity
  • Effect on income and expenses
  • Effect on cash flows
  • Interpreting financial changes

Expected skills: Classifying and recording business transactions, understanding the basic logic of preparing financial statements, and analyzing the impact of inventory and depreciation.

Topics covered

• Financial Statement Analysis

  • Purpose of financial analysis
  • Reading financial statements
  • Comparing business performance
  • Trend analysis
  • Common-size analysis

• Financial Ratio Analysis

  • Ratio concepts
  • Interpreting ratios
  • Comparing ratios over time
  • Comparing firms

• Liquidity Ratios

  • Current ratio
  • Quick ratio
  • Working capital
  • Short-term payment capacity

• Solvency Ratios

  • Debt-to-equity ratio
  • Debt ratio
  • Interest coverage ratio
  • Long-term financial stability

• Efficiency Ratios

  • Inventory turnover
  • Receivables turnover
  • Asset turnover
  • Days sales outstanding
  • Asset utilization

• Profitability Ratios

  • Gross profit margin
  • Operating profit margin
  • Net profit margin
  • Return on assets
  • Return on equity

• Market Valuation Ratios

  • Earnings per share
  • Price-to-earnings ratio
  • Market value concepts
  • Investor-oriented measures

Expected skills: Calculating financial ratios, assessing liquidity and solvency, and interpreting profitability and operational efficiency from financial data.

Topics covered

• Case Study Fundamentals

  • Understanding a company's business
  • Reading financial reports
  • Identifying relevant financial information
  • Understanding business context

• Financial Data Preparation

  • Organizing financial statements
  • Extracting key figures
  • Comparing financial periods
  • Calculating ratios

• Performance Analysis

  • Revenue trends
  • Profitability trends
  • Cost structure
  • Asset utilization
  • Debt and liquidity position

• Ratio-Based Interpretation

  • Liquidity analysis
  • Solvency analysis
  • Efficiency analysis
  • Profitability analysis
  • Market valuation analysis

• Business Comparisons

  • Comparing financial performance across periods
  • Comparing companies
  • Identifying strengths and weaknesses
  • Understanding limitations of ratios

• Financial Decision-Making

  • Identifying financial risks
  • Interpreting financial health
  • Drawing conclusions from financial statements
  • Presenting findings

Expected skills: Analyzing real-world financial statements, using relevant ratios, and drawing data-supported conclusions about company performance.

Topics covered

• Introduction to Management Accounting

  • Meaning and purpose
  • Financial accounting vs management accounting
  • Internal decision-making
  • Planning and control

• Cost Concepts

  • Fixed costs
  • Variable costs
  • Semi-variable costs
  • Direct and indirect costs
  • Product and period costs

• Cost Classification

  • Cost behaviour
  • Cost allocation
  • Cost centres
  • Cost objects
  • Relevant and irrelevant costs

• Profit Analysis

  • Revenue and cost relationships
  • Contribution margin
  • Contribution per unit
  • Break-even analysis
  • Margin of safety

• Management Accounting Applications

  • Budgeting
  • Cost control
  • Pricing decisions
  • Profit planning
  • Make-or-buy decisions

• Business Performance

  • Profitability by product
  • Cost comparisons
  • Performance measurement
  • Operational decision-making

Expected skills: Classifying costs, applying contribution and break-even concepts, and using cost and profit information in management decisions.

Topics covered

• B2B Selling Process

  • Overview of professional selling
  • Business customer relationships
  • Sales cycle
  • Value-based selling

• Step 1: Prospecting

  • Identifying potential customers
  • Lead generation
  • Customer qualification
  • Prioritizing prospects

• Step 2: Approach

  • Preparing for customer meetings
  • Building rapport
  • Initial communication
  • Establishing credibility

• Step 3: Needs Analysis

  • Asking relevant questions
  • Understanding customer problems
  • Identifying requirements
  • Active listening
  • Assessing buying needs

• Step 4: Offer or Pitch

  • Presenting solutions
  • Explaining value propositions
  • Connecting benefits to customer needs
  • Product or service demonstrations

• Step 5: Objection Handling and Negotiation

  • Identifying objections
  • Addressing customer concerns
  • Handling price objections
  • Negotiation strategies

• Step 6: Conclusion

  • Closing the sale
  • Confirming agreements
  • Finalizing terms
  • Completing the purchase process

• Step 7: After-Sales

  • Customer onboarding
  • Post-sale communication
  • Customer satisfaction
  • Relationship management
  • Repeat business and retention

Expected skills: Explain the seven steps of B2B selling, identify customer needs, present suitable offers and handle objections.

Topics covered

• Introduction to Business Negotiation

  • Purpose of negotiation
  • Negotiation situations
  • Interests and positions
  • Bargaining
  • Creating and claiming value

• Negotiation Traps

  • Common negotiation mistakes
  • Anchoring
  • Overconfidence
  • Escalation of commitment
  • Emotional decision-making

• Dashboard Ownership

  • Role of dashboards in business
  • Ownership of performance metrics
  • KPI definitions
  • Data responsibility
  • Conflicts over metric interpretation

• KPI Control Challenges

  • Key Performance Indicators
  • Performance measurement
  • Conflicting business objectives
  • Metric manipulation risks
  • Accountability

• Managing Conflict

  • Sources of organizational conflict
  • Conflicting priorities
  • Communication problems
  • Conflict resolution
  • Negotiation and compromise

• Data Protection and Trust

  • Data ownership
  • Confidential business information
  • Privacy concerns
  • Data access and sharing
  • Trust between business stakeholders

• Business Decision-Making

  • Balancing business goals
  • Negotiating data access
  • Resolving competing interests
  • Maintaining long-term relationships

Expected skills: Identifying negotiation traps, understanding conflicts related to KPI ownership, and analyzing data protection and trust issues in the business context.

Topics covered

• Introduction to Service Failure

  • Meaning of service failure
  • Customer expectations
  • Service quality
  • Types of service failures
  • Causes of service failure

• Service Failure in B2C

  • Individual customer expectations
  • Customer dissatisfaction
  • Complaint handling
  • Refunds and replacements
  • Customer retention

• Service Failure in B2B

  • Organizational customer expectations
  • Long-term business relationships
  • Contractual commitments
  • Operational disruptions
  • Business continuity concerns

• Service Recovery

  • Meaning of service recovery
  • Recovery strategies
  • Apologies and compensation
  • Corrective actions
  • Follow-up communication

• Organizational Responsibilities

  • Role of employees
  • Role of managers
  • Internal coordination
  • Escalation procedures
  • Accountability

• Customer Relationship Management

  • Restoring customer trust
  • Customer satisfaction
  • Relationship recovery
  • Customer retention
  • Long-term relationship management

• Comparing B2C and B2B Recovery

  • Differences in customer expectations
  • Differences in service recovery
  • Financial and operational implications
  • Impact on organizations and employees

Expected skills: Identifying causes of service failures, comparing B2C and B2B recovery approaches, and explaining suitable recovery strategies.