COURSE OVERVIEW:

Welcome to the Business Statistics for Decision Making course. This program will equip you with the skills and knowledge to understand what business statistics is, use it appropriately in everyday decisions, and recognise when numbers are being misapplied or misinterpreted. Throughout this course, you will learn why statistics are such a powerful and relatively low-cost tool in business, how to spot situations where statistics should not be used, what leads to the underuse and overuse of statistics, and how statistical information can sometimes be used to misinform rather than inform if assumptions and context are ignored.

The course begins by clarifying the foundations of business statistics so that you can see exactly what role it plays in decision making. You explore what business statistics is, the importance of statistics in supporting business decisions, and how statistics can be used to determine when not to rely on statistical approaches at all. You consider why statistics are often a cheap and efficient way to gain insight, the factors that lead to the underuse and overuse of statistics in organisations, and the ways in which statistics can be distorted or selectively presented to mislead decision makers instead of supporting sound judgement.

The focus then shifts to the core concepts and categories of statistical work that underpin common business applications. You examine the statistical assumptions that sit behind particular techniques and situations, the relationship between mathematics and statistics, and the range of contexts in which statistics is used in business. You distinguish clearly between descriptive and inferential statistics, review examples of questions that call for descriptive summaries versus questions that require inferential conclusions, and build an understanding of what constitutes a statistical study and a well-structured statistical report so you can better judge the quality and relevance of the analyses you encounter.

Attention then turns to measurement, data, and error so that you can work more confidently with real-world information. You explore what measurement means in a statistical setting and how values that are not numbers can still be captured and analysed. You look at what “data” means in statistics, the different levels of measurement and how they affect the techniques you can use, and what is meant by error in statistics. You also learn how to clean your data to address obvious mistakes and inconsistencies, and you examine two key ways of being wrong—validity and reliability—so that you can recognise when results may not mean what they appear to mean.

The course then explores sampling, populations, and analysis as the bridge between raw data and business insight. You investigate what sampling is in statistics, the most common types of samples used in practice, and what is meant by a population in contrast to a sample. You consider what analysis means in statistics, how to summarise data in ways that are meaningful and accurate, and when a number qualifies as a “statistic” rather than just a raw figure. You also gain an introductory understanding of what is meant by a statistical technique, linking everyday business questions to appropriate methods for describing, comparing, or drawing conclusions from data.

By the end of this course, you will be able to explain clearly what business statistics is, why it matters for decision making, and how to recognise situations where statistics are being underused, overused, or misused. You will understand the difference between descriptive and inferential statistics, the basics of measurement, data quality, error, sampling, and populations, and the structure of statistical studies and reports. Most importantly, you will be equipped to engage more confidently with statistical information, ask better questions about data and methods, and apply statistics as a practical tool to support clearer, more reliable business decisions.

LEARNING OUTCOMES:

By the end of this course, you will be able to understand:

• What business statistics is?
• The importance of business statistics in business decisions
• How to use statistics to find out when not to use statistics?
• Why statistics are cheap?
• The things that lead to the underuse of statistics
• The things that lead to the overuse of statistics
• How statistics can be used to misinform, rather than inform?
• Statistical assumptions of statistical technique situations
• Math and statistics
• Where is statistics used?
• Descriptive and inferential statistics
• Examples of questions that call for descriptive statistics
• Examples of questions that call for inferential statistics
• The statistical study
• The statistical report
• What is measurement?
• Values that aren’t numbers
• What is data in statistics?
• The different levels of measurement
• What is error in statistics?
• How to clean your data?
• Two ways of being wrong: validity and reliability
• What is a sampling in statistics?
• The most common types of samples
• What is a population?
• What is analysis in statistics?
• How to summarise data?
• When is a number a statistic?
• What is a statistical technique?

COURSE DURATION:

The typical duration of this course is approximately 2-3 hours to complete. Your enrolment is Valid for 12 Months. Start anytime and study at your own pace.

ASSESSMENT:

A simple 10-question true or false quiz with Unlimited Submission Attempts.

CERTIFICATION:

Upon course completion, you will receive a customised digital “Certificate of Completion”.