Solver in Excel for Management Consultants & Analysts (Udemy.com)

What is the aim of this course?

From time to time, you have to find optimal solutions to more complicated problems that cannot be solved by typical analyses. Where we should build factories to minimize the total costs for the whole supply chain? How should we plan the flow of goods between factories and our customers, so the demand is met and we maximize our profit? What mix of products will be optimal for us given our capacities, demand, costs, and profits? Luckily, for those cases, we can use Solver in Excel and Linear Programming which will help you find optimal solutions. In this course, I will teach how to use Solver in Excel and Linear Programming in practice to solve complex problems and find optimal solutions.

In the course you will learn the following things:

1. How to use Solver in Excel in practice

2. How to define problems using the linear programming language

3. How to find optimal solutions to problems using Solver

This course is based on my 15 years of experience as a consultant in top consulting firms and as a Board Member responsible for strategy, performance improvement, and turn-arounds in the biggest firms from Retail, FMCG, SMG, B2B, and services sectors that I worked for. I have carried out or supervised over 90 different performance improvement projects in different industries that generated a total of 2 billion in additional EBITDA. On the basis of what you will find in this course, I have trained in person over 100 consultants, business analysts, and managers who now are Partners in PE and VC funds, Investment Directors and Business Analysts in PE and VC, Operational Directors, COO, CRO, CEO, Directors in Consulting Companies, Board Members, etc. On top of that my courses on Udemy were already taken by more than 182 000 students including people working in EY, McKinsey, Walmart, Booz Allen Hamilton, Adidas, Naspers, Alvarez & Marsal, PwC, Dell, Walgreens, Orange, and many others.

I teach through case studies, so you will have a lot of lectures showing examples of analyses, and tools that we use. To every lecture, you will find attached (in additional resources) the Excels as well as additional presentations, and materials shown in the lectures so as a part of this course you will also get a library of ready-made analyses that can, with certain modifications, be applied by you or your team in your work.

Why have I decided to create this course?

Linear programming is an interesting, relatively easy-to-use Excel tool that helps you solve complex problems. Most firms, don’t teach you how to use linear programming and Solver to find optimal solutions. This may lead to huge frustration during consulting projects and a lot of inefficiencies.

Therefore, I have decided to create this course that will help students understand linear programming and learn how to use Solver in Excel during consulting projects. The course will give you the knowledge and insight into real-life case studies that will make your life during a consulting project much easier. Thanks to this course, you will know-how in a simple manner to solve many complex problems.

To sum it up, I believe that if you want to become a world-class Management Consultant or Business Analyst you have to have a pretty decent understanding of linear programming and Excel Solver. That is why, I highly recommend this course to Management Consultants or Business Analysts, especially those that do a lot of analysis in Excel. The course will help you become an expert in analyses on the level of McKinsey, BCG, Bain, and other top consulting firms.

In what way will you benefit from this course?

The course is a practical, step-by-step guide loaded with tons of analyses, tricks, and hints that will significantly improve the speed with which you understand, and analyze businesses. There is little theory – mainly examples, a lot of tips from my own experience as well as other notable examples worth mentioning. Our intention is that thanks to the course you will learn:

1. How to use Solver in Excel in practice

2. How to define problems using the linear programming language

3. How to find optimal solutions to problems using Solver

You can also ask me any question either through the discussion field or by messaging me directly.

How the course is organized?

The course is divided currently into the following sections:

• Introduction. We begin with a little introduction to the course as well as some general info on how the course is organized

• How to use Solver in Excel. I will start with a short example that will help you understand how to use Solver in practice.

• Essential Linear Programming. In this section, I will explain to you what is Linear Programming. To make the most of the Solver in Excel you have to learn a little bit about Linear Programming which we will use to write down the problems we want to solve.

• Cases studies. In this section, we will use the concept that we have learned to solve different case studies.

You will be able also to download many additional resources

1. Useful frameworks and techniques

2. Analyses shown in the course

3. Additional resources

4. Links to additional presentations, articles, and movies

5. Links to books worth reading

At the end of my course, students will be able to…

• How to use Solver in Excel in practice

• How to define problems using the linear programming language

• How to find optimal solutions to problems using Solver

Who should take this course? Who should not?

• Management Consultants

• Business Analysts

• Analysts responsible for Supply Chain

• Analysts responsible for Production Planning

• Analysts responsible for finding the optimal place for a new factory.

What will students need to know or do before starting this course?

• Basic or intermediate Excel

• Basic knowledge of economics

• Basic or intermediate knowledge of finance & accounting