Discovering Your Inner Quant Jock: Financial Modeling and Business Decisions

(WSP 150)

We have the tool—a super-powerful spreadsheet on our desktops—but we know that we are probably using less than 5 percent of its functionality. We face many financial and business decisions in our professional and personal lives, but we never seem to tackle them properly. This course will provide students with the methods and the mindset to make complex financial and economic decisions. Topics covered will include general techniques (structure, parameters, sensitivity analysis, reporting), demand forecasting, financial analysis and forecasting, personal financial planning, data mining, dealing with uncertainty, and others.

Students enrolling in this course are required to bring their own laptops to class.

Iddo Hadar, Founder and President, Strat Man Consulting

Iddo Hadar has more than twenty years of strategy experience in many segments of the high tech industry, and was chief marketing officer and head of corporate strategy at Applied Materials before founding Strat Man Consulting. His experience combines industry and consulting work in restructuring, technology strategy, marketing strategy, and strategic investment. In his current and previous roles in corporate strategy and business development, he has worked on a broad range of strategic, economic, and technological initiatives. He received an MBA from Stanford and is an experienced programmer and economist.