Synopsis
This book is wholly dedicated to the art of exploratory spreadsheet modeling. Real problems that readers encounter on a day-to-day basis are presented, with the aim of helping them derive applicable principles and link principles to practice.
Users of this book will find it a refreshing learning guide and handy reference resource. It offers 101 spreadsheet exercises and tools, including a chapter featuring another 101 business challenges that readers can practice as modeling projects. Introduced for the first time in this third edition is a set of Discovery Points, 46 in total. They are included to enlighten readers and instructors on the underlying exploratory thinking employed in the exercises.
Though the book can be used with different versions of Microsoft Excel, LibreOffice and OpenOffice Calc, and other spreadsheet application software, this edition only presents Excel 2010-13 spreadsheet features and functions, and Visual Basic for Application in its appendices.
The notes for older Excel versions, and OpenOffice Calc and Basic from the earlier editions, and the newly added LibreOffice Calc and Basic are now found in a new Online Learning Center that accompanies this book. Completed spreadsheet workbooks in the different spreadsheet versions are also provided there.
This way, the book should remain helpful for any person, whether a novice, beginner, or expert, to learn business modeling using basic and advanced spreadsheet features, as well as macro programming.
NEW IN THIS EDITION
Discovery Points:
To better support underlying thinking and give pointers to guide business problem exploration. These are more general than the comments in the Concept sub-section of exercises and they are ideas many experienced modelers use intuitively. Listed at the start of each chapter to help consolidate the learning for seasoned modelers, and make it easier for instructors to impart the art of modeling to students. These points can be used for self-discovery, class discussion and project team deliberations. They can be applied to various settings and exercises found in this book.
Problem Sets:
Provides a means to test students to ensure that learning has taken place at the correct pace. A separate question sets of assignments, quizzes and examinations apart from the exercises in the book. These are simpler and more defined problems for students to practice and be evaluated on their spreadsheet skills. The questions with given data are easier and the harder questions are marked with an asterisk (*). TARGET AUDIENCE
Undergraduates, graduate students, and professionals involved in business development, finance, accounting and operations.
About the Author
Dr Leong is currently Associate Professor at the SIM University in Singapore. He was Associate Dean (Strategic Planning and Initiatives) and a faculty member, for 10 years, of the School of Information Systems at the Singapore Management University. Before that, he was a faculty member, for 10 years, of the National University of Singapore s Business School. Over two decades, he had designed and taught many courses in operations management, logistics and supply chain management, and business spreadsheet modeling in undergraduate, MBA, and executive programs. In between academia, Dr Leong spent more than a decade in the industry and served as Vice-President (Operations Planning & Research) and Senior Vice-President (Information Technology) with the port operator that runs the world s busiest container terminal, where he spearheaded its operations improvements, and systems and technology development. He also provided many models that supported management decisions in strategy, capacity development, operational planning and scheduling, and financial and tax issues. One of his current pet teaching and research interests is spreadsheet modeling and analysis, leveraging his past experience for research as well as industry applications. Although in academia, he remains active in business consulting and has worked with many multinational corporations and local companies, particularly those in the electronics, petrochemical, medical, hospitality, banking, cargo logistics, passenger transport, and government sectors.
Dr Cheong is Associate Professor of Information Systems (Practice) at the Singapore Management University (SMU) and Director of the School of Information System s (SIS) Postgraduate Professional Programmes, where she is in charge of two master programmes and Continuing Education & Training. Cheong had worked eight years in the industry developing and implementing enterprise IT solutions for manufacturing companies. She had led teams to develop complex IT systems which were implemented enterprise-wide covering business functions from sales to engineering, inventory management, planning, production, and distribution. She consulted for precision engineering, printing, aerospace, and brewery companies in business process reengineering for IT solutions implementation. Upon obtaining her Ph.D. degree in Operations Management, she joined SMU in 2005 where she teaches the Business Modeling with Spreadsheets course at the undergraduate level. She also teaches different variants of spreadsheet modeling courses in 3 different master programmes at SMU, covering different domains, including financial modeling, innovation modeling and IT project management. She recently designed and delivered an Operations analytics and applications course for the Master of IT in Business (Analytics) programme at SIS.
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