Donna L. Haeger is a Professor of Practice in the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management at Cornell University. She teaches introductory and advanced spreadsheet modeling courses for applied decision making. These courses leverage Microsoft Excel as a business analytics tool. Prior to teaching at Cornell, Dr. Haeger taught courses in management theory, organizational behavior, and marketing. With over 20 years in industry, her corporate experience includes work in investments, banking, and corporate finance. Dr. Haeger is the business analytics concentration coordinator and chaired the task force responsible for launching the concentration. Her research interests are at the intersection of organizational behavior and digitization. Dr. Haeger explores technology in the workplace, leadership, teams, and management. Her contributions relate to influence and intergenerational exchanges in an effort to blend human systems. Dr. Haeger presents her research at the Academy of Management and other leadership associations. She also enjoys mentoring students interested in undergraduate research, especially when the products serve to better communities. Dr. Haeger currently sits on the board of directors for Consumer Credit Counseling Services of Rochester, which specializes in spreading financial literacy to communities.
Getting Started with Spreadsheet Modeling and Business AnalyticsCornell Course
Course Overview
To successfully and quickly solve business problems you need more than just intuition; you need solutions based on data. Data analytics is essential for any successful business. It helps us frame problems, make comparisons, forecast outcomes, and make decisions. You can use simple but very effective tools to analyze your data and make better, more informed decisions.
In this course, you will explore spreadsheet modeling for applied decision making. You will work with data sets and navigate in an Excel 2016 Workbook. You will examine data cleaning and modeling concepts, practice core Excel skills, and explore ways to apply data management techniques to the spreadsheet system by using its math and logic capabilities to their full potential. By performing data management, you can improve the structure and usefulness of your data.
Key Course Takeaways
- Demystify the concepts of business analytics and apply them to your work
- Identify Excel's business analytics and modeling capabilities
- Use Excel formatting to improve consistency and readability of information
- Use formulas and functions to calculate and analyze your data
- Create a simple macro to reduce redundant tasks

How It Works
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Who Should Enroll
- Anyone who manages functional or financial data to inform business decisions
- Managers and executives responsible for resource allocation and reporting
- Analysts interested in developing a business management mindset to make their analyses and data visualizations more meaningful to stakeholders
- New analysts or people interested in moving into an analyst role
- Individuals and entrepreneurs who need to visualize data or want a refresher on using a modern version of Excel
- People in office support roles, administrative and executive assistants
- People providing support at any level