Specialized Master in Business Analytics
Analytics Management Capstone
The Pre-Capstone and Analytics Management Capstone courses are an experiential learning opportunity integrated throughout the SMB-A curriculum, which exposes you to leading organizations' real-world analytics challenges. You'll realize the full potential of the analytical skills acquired throughout the program, gain experience managing a small team and showcase your business expertise to a professional audience.
Connecting Analytics with Business
Unlike most other graduate analytics programs, Ohio State's SMB-A program is taught within the Fisher College of Business. The connection Fisher provides between business and analytics means you'll gain highly desirable real-world experience solving problems companies are facing today. No matter the current stage of your career or analytics experience level, we tailor the program and capstone experience to you. It's time to advance your leadership skills and analytical expertise so you can reach your goals. View the three steps of the Analytics Management Capstone below.
View the SMB-A Capstone Webinar
Step 1: Select your real-world project
Identify a real value-adding consulting project in diverse sectors of interest to you (technology, healthcare, operations, supply chain, education, finance, government, research, retail, etc.), where data can inform practice. Companies all over the world and in diverse sectors choose Fisher students to take on significant problems they face.
Working professional SMB-A students (part-time or full-time) typically choose a project with analytical work related to their current employer. It's an excellent way to capitalize on existing contextual knowledge and understanding of the analysis's relevance and potential impact. It's also a great way to impress leadership at your current organization.
Being a school of business at a renowned university has its benefits. Students without a project/current employer can work with a SMB-A program director to tap into Fisher sourced-projects for clients who expect the same quality of deliverables and positive teamwork that they would receive from their own employees.
Examples of Past Projects
- Kimball Midwest Inventory Accuracy: Death by A Thousand Cuts
- Data-driven Fundraising to Increase Workplace Giving
- Publisher Deal Qualification Score
- An Analysis of the Effect of Order Changes on Freight Costs in the Supply Chain
- Hospital ROI and Distributor Chargeback Forecasting Model
- P&G Nyquil & Dayquil Sales Prediction
- Analysis of the Relationship of Time to Candidate Decisions to Withdraw from Recruitment Process Risk-Prediction Model for Myocardial Infarction
- Forecasting the Demand and Supply of Cash at a Bank’s Cash Vaults: Building a Better Mouse Trap
- Past Due Invoice Root Cause Analysis
- Analysis of Hawaiian Telecom and the Possible Prediction of Churn based on Sentiment
- New Account Opening Attrition Model
- Thin Credit Profiles or Synthetic Identities?
Sample of Participating Organizations
As an SMB-A student, you'll benefit from the unique combination of a tight-knit graduate program at one of the largest universities in the country. Ohio State's Fisher College of Business has a wide range of organizations that work with our SMB-A and MBA graduate students on analytics projects.
- Abbott
- ACME Logistics
- Alliance Data
- Allied Mineral
- Bamboo Rose
- Cardinal Health
- City of Columbus
- CVG
- DHL
- FacilitySource
- Fisher OCM
- Honda
- Huntington
- Insight
- Kroger
- Lease or Buy
- Little Italy
- Lodestone Academy
- Mid-Ohio Foodbank
- Mymee
- Ohio State (Chemistry)
- Ohio State (Medical)
- P&G
- Pacejet
- Renaissance Periodization
- Saama
- Sandvik Hyperion
- Stanley Black & Decker
- State of Ohio
- Stony Creek Brewery
- U.S. Military
- Updox
- WantMyLook
- Whole Foods Market
- WOSU
- and more!
Are You an Organization Looking to Participate?
Having analytical work completed by Fisher College of Business students is a great way to contribute while also benefitting your organization. Fisher has numerous project opportunities in both the undergraduate and graduate analytics curricula that can fit your needs and interest. Accepted projects typically require organizations to provide data relevant to the context. They will also require time allocated to dialogue between the originating organization and the student/team to ensure a contextual understanding of the data set's task and nature. To facilitate the best match between your project and student availability, please complete this form.
Step 2: Leverage your analytics micro-team
As part of your capstone experience, you and another SMB-A student manage a small analytics team in a real-world setting, which occurs in a spring Pre-Capstone course.
About the Pre-Capstone
The Pre-Capstone is a data and methods preparatory curriculum in advance of the summer term. This curriculum continues discussions of problem structuring, begun in the Fall. It includes a 10-week Micro-Team experience where SMB-A students manage and collaborate with a junior analyst and advisory faculty member. By its design, and exposure to additional analytics tools, the Pre-Cap ensures you'll be well-prepared for successful independent Capstone work in the Summer term. A typical team is as follows:
| Your Team | Role | Responsibilities |
|---|---|---|
| SMB-A Director | Capstone Instructor | Course instruction, guidance, frameworks and timelines for projects. |
| SMB-A Student(s) | Project Lead(s) | Work in a group (2-3) managing data context, establishing tasks/timelines, coordinating NDAs, leading analysis/reports/presentations |
| Fisher Undergrad Student(s)* | Mentee/Jr. Analyst | Feb-April, Assists in data collection/cleaning/visual artifacts/dashboards |
| Fisher Faculty | Project Advisor | Faculty advising throughout (~3-4 30-min. meetings from Dec. through June) |
* The number of assigned Fisher undergrad students matches the number of SMB-A students on the micro-team (1-1, 2-2, 3-3).
Some benefits of the micro-team experience
- Demonstrate skills gained in coursework as a project lead
- Establish tasks and timelines
- Coordinate any required NDAs
- Apply descriptive/predictive/prescriptive analysis
- Reporting and presentation work that builds leadership
Step 3: Put theory into practice
To help guide initial thoughts and the ultimate development of the project and its deliverables, SMB-A students and their teams will make use of several frameworks. Examples include the OUtCoMES Cycle, Systems-Oriented A3, and the Management Analytics Decision-Tree. These resources, and more, are introduced and utilized during 1-hour advisory sessions every two weeks during the autumn and spring semesters, which lead into the summer when you will move to two 1-hour advisory sessions every week for seven weeks. Below is a quick look at the Management Analytics Capstone timeline. The capstone is an integral part of the SMB-A program structure and curriculum.
Project Planning Resource Examples
An iterative process used to structure otherwise unstructured or poorly structured real-world problems. The approach identifies core performance objectives, critical levers, and salient limitations on managerial decision-making. Used with analytical tactics, the approach provides actionable prescriptions to practice. Learn more about The OUtCoMES Cycle.
To support documentation throughout the OUtCoMES Cycle and assist in the final capstone presentation, students and their teams complete both a preliminary A3 for early feedback on project plans and a final A3 as part of your final project report. No matter your analytics experience level, Fisher teaches proven real-world business-analytics techniques and provides high-value resources to support your development and career growth.
To help you think about the analytical tools and tactics that might prove useful in each stage of your project journey, the International Institute for Analytics provides a decision-tree framework. This framework can guide you in selecting analytical approaches from descriptive, to predictive and through prescriptive stages of your work. In the SMB-A program, you'll gain an understanding of multiple vantage points through which data is considered, extracted, and scrutinized to empower you as a decisive business leader capable of leading analytics teams.
©2024 Fisher College of Business
2100 Neil Avenue, Columbus, Ohio 43210
If you have a disability and experience difficulty accessing this site,
please contact us for assistance.