12 Books to Start Your Business Analytics Journey

Table of Contents

Introduction:

In the fast-changing world, choosing the right career becomes difficult for many. Business Analytics has become a buzzing career option. One graduated or post-graduated in statistics, computer science, business management, computing, and systems development, and business information systems can take up this career path. This can be an exceptional career scope for ones who have an idea of developing solutions, evaluating and analyzing data, and also handling numerous individuals while shining at IT. Before entering into the field one must do research about the industry they want, must learn from other Business Analysts, must look out for training opportunities, refine one’s soft skills, should be interested to grab all the latest happenings in the industry.

In this modern era, every individual is more inclined towards learning through e-books and exploring them on search engines. Whatsoever book still plays the important role in being educated. Books help in exploring a particular topic and also help in immersing in a deeper way. To help in searching the books for business analytics to start with, a list has been curated. The list of business analytics books is based on popularity, relevance, ratings, and ability to add business value. The books are from recognized leaders, field experts, and also technology professionals.

List of Business Analytics Books:

1. “Microsoft Excel Data Analysis and Business Modeling” authored by Wayne L. Winston:

Any beginner good with MS Excel can become proficient in business modeling, analysis techniques and transform the data into bottom-line results. This book is written by American academic Wayne L. Winston, Professor at the Kelley School of Business. This

can guide one using new tools of Excel to get actionable and accurate answers. The edition helps in solving more than 150 problems along with solutions. It also includes a basic spreadsheet chapter.

The book targets solving real problems of business with Excel and building competitive advantage. It also includes:

Learning quick transition from basic Excel to advanced analytics;
Summarising through using Descriptive Statistics and Pivot Tables;
Using Excel multiple regression, trend curves, and exponential smoothing;
Mastering in advanced functions like INDIRECT and OFFSET;
Exploring into statistical, key financial, and time functions;
Leveraging the new charts of Excel 2016;
An effective chart making by using Power View;
Using Excel Solver for complex optimizations;
Learning about Bayes’ Theorem;
Running Monte Carlo simulations for stock prices and bidding models;
Working with table slicers and AGGREGATE function;
Creating Pivot Tables in different worksheets;
Learning about basic probability;
Using macros for automating repetitive tasks.

2. “Data Analytics: The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to Data Analytics” authored by Edward Mize:

Imagining a master of data or business analytics and solving problems quickly and working faster than ever before? Then this book will guide you through the journey. Edward Mize is a mathematics and information technology author has presented the perfect data analytics guide for beginners. With best-selling books and a blog that receives thousands of readers every month, Mize has compiled most of the practical data analytics for a beginner. He is well-known and also incredibly popular for his potentiality to teach tough topics in an easy way, one won’t have any issues in learning and implementing it. if you feel that your business doesn’t benefit from the edge of IT, math, and technology and also wish for quickly and easily fixing problems in marketing, sales, operations, etc. then this book is a must-have.

One can be benefited as this book is:

An extensive breakdown of everything one learns so it becomes easy to understand and a perfect fit for any, who is a beginner;
An understanding of the perimeter that data analytics and business intelligence play in today’s modern world today;
An introductory to the different forms of data analytics, what it’s meant in the modern world, and how it can be applied for more powerful results and better quality;
And moreover, Mize’s personal email address is provided for unlimited customer support if anyone has questions.

3. “Data Analytics: Become A Master In Data Analytics” authored by Richard Dorsey:

Business analytics isn’t easy, one needs to figure out which form of data analytics is required to overcome the challenges while analyzing the data. This book on data analytics is written by Richard Dorsey, who is a programmer expert with 20 years of experience in the software industry. This book guides through the easiest way for working in business analytics or data analytics and also how to avoid the risk and challenges while working with the data. Analyzing data is not that so easy but it becomes easy with one’s practice. One must invest his time to practice. This book helps in guiding:

The risks associated with data analytics;
The forms of data analytics;
About the decision tree;
The advantages of using data analytics in problems;
Real examples show how one will be able to take and apply this knowledge in everyday life.

Data analysis is done in every line of work, with this book one is able to learn overall and acquire knowledge of data analytics.

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4. “Predictive Analytics for Dummies” authored by Dr. Anasse Bari:

Big data and technology are used to uncover insights into the real world. For this, it takes a little knowledge and technical know-how. One can discover the basics of predictive analytics in this beginner-friendly guide for getting started with available tools for collecting and analyzing data. With this book one can learn to incorporate algorithms through data models, identifying similarities in data, and predicting the future by classifying data.

Through preparing the data one will develop a roadmap, data processing, goal creation, and predictive model building in which the stakeholders will be interested. The marketplace has been taken by Big Data and companies are looking forward to quality talent to fill the positions to analyze the daily amount of collected data. Everything related to get into action, deepening the understanding of using predictive analytics can be found in this book.

It helps in guiding:

By offering common cases to help in starting;
Includes details on k-means cluster and modeling;
Covers information on data structuring;
Tips on outlining approaches and business goals.

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5. “Data Strategy: How to Profit from a World of Big Data, Analytics and the Internet of Things” authored by Bernard Marrs:

Business leaders and managers are very much skeptical and concerned about data. Data is viewed as a strategic asset for surviving and thriving in the current marketplace. The book Data Strategy: How to Profit from a World of Big Data, Analytics and the Internet of Things by Bernard Marrs is a must-have for beginners for a robust data strategy creation. It helps in the identification of strategic data needs, methods for collection of data, and translating the data into insights for improvement in business performance and decision making. This book is a must-have for anyone who wants to increase their business value and cutthroat business mind. The book includes case studies and practical examples, guides on building data competencies in the business, and ways to ensure that the data don’t become a liability.

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6. “Data Analysis Using SQL and Excel” authored by Gordon S. Linoff:

The author Gordon S. Linoff was interested in understanding large data sets and analyzing them. Since he was a student at MIT, he was inclined towards applying the outcomes to business problems. He is a teacher, thought leader, and practitioner in the field of data mining. He founded Data Miners, Inc and is the Principal of it.

The book helps in guiding two important tools i.e SQL and Excel for data query and analysis. It is to perform data analysis without using data mining tools which are complex and expensive. The expert author of the book has shown how to draw out useful information about the business from the relative database. The book will guide one through learning the fundamental techniques, designing and performing the analyses using Excel and SQL.

The book Data Analysis Using SQL and Excel focuses on:

Understanding basic analytical techniques that go with Excel and SQL;
Ensuring the analytical approach for the required results;
Designing and performing the data analysis using Excel and SQL.

7. “Business unIntelligence: Insight and Innovation” authored by Dr. Barry Devlin:

The book Business unIntelligence: Insight and Innovation beyond Analytics and Big Data is another book that will help in making confident in the world of business analytics. This book reflects the reality of a rapidly changing and socially complex world. Business decisions need to be combined with intuitive and rational thinking. This book focuses on providing new models that IT and businesses together can design the support systems for a successful organization.

The author Dr. Barry Devlin is one of the patrons of data warehousing who went back to the basics for exploring the process, people, and information that needs to be restructured and reinvented for delivering innovation, value, and insight. He developed a series of architectural models providing the foundation for comprehensive information for use across the business. He defined a closed-loop environment that is completely integrated. Also covered all aspects of big data, collaborative working, business analytics, and many more. This book guides in delivering the definite framework for the use of information and Integrating signals from diverse knowledge and information sources, the analysts create distinctive meaning to establish and stimulating interest in one thoughts process.

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8. “R for Everyone” authored by Jared Lander:

The book R for Everyone: Advanced Analytics and Graphics is a solution for building powerful statistical models for answering almost all the challenging questions. Understanding R is very much difficult for non-statisticians and most of the R books don’t serve the purpose and this book comes to the rescue. Jared P. Lander is a professional data scientist with his beyond comparable experience teaching the new users of statistical modeling and programming. This book focuses on 20% of the R functionality and one needs to establish 80% of modern data tasks by organizing the learning intuitive and easy. The chapters contain absolute basics by offering wide real practice and sample code. After building the foundation one can construct several models including linear and nonlinear, and using some of the data mining tools.

The book covers exploring R and its packages, using R, exploiting the structures, creating intuitive graphics, controlling the program flow, and many more. By the end, one will be efficient enough and ready to handle the statistical problems.

9. “Beyond Every Good Decision” authored by Piyanka Jain and Puneet Sharma:

There’s nothing to worry about if you aren’t a person of numbers. If you can’t understand, implement, it’s not a problem as it’s a misconception in today’s business that what matters is Big Data. But this doesn’t matter, the authors’ duo Jain and Sharma has set forth the process of business analytics and demonstrated how professionals of any level can take the help of the information.

The book “How Every Good Decision: How Anyone Can Use Business Analytics to Turn Data into Profitable Insight” guides by using Excel as the tool. The readers will learn to clarify the business problems, laying out the hypothesis-driven plan, pulling relevant data, converting it to insights, and making decisions that make an impact. The book is packed with practical examples and exercises. It also guides in solving 80% of the business problems by fundamental techniques of Analytics. One needs to be acquainted with the formulas.

10. “From Big Data to Big Profits” authored by Russell Walker:

The author Dr. Russell Walker helps companies in developing strategies for managing the risks and harnessing value through Big Data and Analytics. He is also a professor of Foster School of Business teaching Strategic Data-Driven Marketing, Data Science, Enterprise Risk Management, and Big Data and Analytics.

This book investigates the usage of Big Data for stimulating innovation in business growth and operational effectiveness. He examines the Big Data nature and how business organizations can use it for creating monetization opportunities. Walker has explored how digital platforms like social networks and mobile applications are changing the customer interaction nature by using case studies of Netflix, LinkedIn, Apple, Google, and other leaders. This book is a valuable resource for researchers, students, and also professionals interested in Big Data, analytics, and digital platforms.

11. “Data Analytics” authored by Byron Francis:

The book Data Analytics: The Complete Beginners Guide written by Byron Francis is designed for senior-level of undergraduate and postgraduate level students of Computer Science Engineering. The book includes Big Data, statistics in practice, Descriptive and Inferential Statistics, Statistical data analysis, Variables, Parameters & Statistics, Making Data Work, Predictive Modeling Techniques, and many more.

The Author Byron Francis is a computer developer now turned author. While working as a developer he has gained a wide knowledge of computer programming while working for clients globally and started delivering training. To accelerate training delivery he started writing manuals on contents like Linux, SQL, and Raspberry Pi 3 which became popular among his team and that’s how he published it. This book is a step-by-step instruction on using Data Analytics.

12. “Cognitive Computing and Big Data Analytics” authored by Hurwitz, Kaufman, and Bowles:

This book is a comprehensive guide for learning technologies. It provides detailed guidance towards building new systems that help in learning from experience and deriving insights for unlocking the value of big data. The book Cognitive Computing and Big Data Analytics helps technologists in understanding underlying technologies rather than reprogramming. This book includes detailed case study examples from the fields of finance, manufacturing, and healthcare which provides insight into the practical world of implementing cognitive computing systems.

In today’s world, cognitive computing solutions are building established concepts in natural language processing, artificial intelligence, and ontologies in big data and analytics. This book gives a comprehensive guide by providing both theoretical and practical approaches a technologist needs like discovering how cognitive computing is evolved, learning the elements, evaluating own application portfolio, and many more.

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Conclusion:

Business Analytics is a demanding career option. One can acquire knowledge by taking a course, immersing in the books specially designed for beginners, and also by taking guidance from professionals.

Business analysts play a key role in guiding businesses in improving products, processes, services, and software. They help in bridging the gap between Information Technology and businesses and helps in improving its efficiency to add value. For this, a business analyst must persuade the ideas by balancing them against what’s technologically viable and also reasonable in terms of functionality and finances.

Depending on the job, one can work with data sets to improve products, processes, tools, services, and software. They do not have a fixed role, they can take part in sales planning, operations scaling, developmental process, or being a part of an agile software development team.

Business Analytics is a buzzing career option for many. The above-mentioned list of books serves the purpose of choosing books that are beginner-friendly to start with business analytics and will help in delivering the road map for the betterment of its course.

FAQ:

Q1. Suggest Some best books for beginners

Ans. Some best and handy books for beginners are:
Storytelling with data
Business Analytics for dummies
Data science lifecycle
Predictive analytics for dummies

Q2. What is a good program structure for a Master in Business Analytics should cover?

Ans. An updated and good business analytic module should include:
Analytics for Competitive Advantage.
Introduction to Statistics for Data Scientists.
Programming for Data Science.
Financial Accounting.
Marketing Management.
Big Data Analytics.
Data Management, Databases, and Data Warehousing.
Building and Managing Teams.

Q3. What are the four important types of business analytics?

Ans. Three essential types of business analytics are:
Descriptive, predictive, and prescriptive analytics.
Descriptive analytics.
Predictive analytics.
Prescriptive analytics.
A data-led future.

Q4. Is the business analyst job challenging?

Ans. According to Forbes, a business analyst job is less exhausting than other high-demand finance jobs. Further, they offer great flexible work options. A few things will depend on the industry and sector in which you work and also on the experience you hold in the field.

Q5. Are business analysts paid well?

Ans: Education also affects business analyst salary; candidates with a Bachelor’s degree or Master’s degree have a median salary of 60000 INR. Significantly above an Associate degree holder’s salary of 80000 INR. Carrying industry-specific certifications and skills can increase your value still higher on the open market.