Update to MBA Excel Homework Tracker

In 2012, back when I was in business school, I created a spreadsheet-based task tracker to manage my various commitments.  Because I'm somewhat of a visual design nerd, I leveraged Excel as my platform of choice because of all the detailed conditional formatting options available. It's now been more than 4 years since I created Continue Reading >>

How to Use the MATCH Formula in Excel: Three Practical Examples

Excel's MATCH formula is an extremely useful yet underutilized function within Excel's toolkit of formulas.  The reason people underestimate its value is because the MATCH formula's primary objective is fuzzy and ambiguous.  Without the proper context, its usefulness and potential applications are not obvious. The MATCH Continue Reading >>

The Eight Things You Should Always Check Whenever You Receive an Excel File

Photo by adamr Taking over another person's Excel file always has the potential to become a difficult task.  While some people actually create documentation, consider a new user's point of view, and take the time to call out the mousetraps that you might encounter, most of the time, you'll be getting a straight file dump.  Therefore, Continue Reading >>

The Eight Most Impactful Excel Shortcuts That You Should Master

If you've ever gone online to research improving your Excel skills, you've undoubtedly come across a post or two listing all of Excel's keyboard shortcuts.  In the latest version of Excel, Microsoft has made it easier than ever to learn shortcuts, by assigning shortcuts to nearly every function and making the discovery of the input Continue Reading >>

Key Takeaways from the Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement

The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement, by Eliyahu M. Goldratt, is a book pretty much every business school student is required to read.  Below are the key takeaways from this book: Accounting vs. Operational Measures Accounting cost figures misleading for operations purposes Productivity per machine is meaningless; Continue Reading >>