Do not work for these companies

Company 1: I recalled someone telling me that his ex-companies do not allow anyone to use Excel or spreadsheets.

Company 2: I have also met a sales manager who despised the use of Excel.

When I heard of the 2 incidents, I laughed.

For the first company, they did not allow the use of Excel because their ex-employees left them a spreadsheet that nobody knew how to modify. And the report had to be abandoned.

For the boss to get so angry, the report must be very useful. Except that there was no other staff who was trained to take over the spreadsheet.

For the second company, they frown at the use of Excel probably because the work they saw was mediocre.

In both cases, they did not have the expertise to manage Excel spreadsheets. And it was quite sad when they didn’t have the expertise. And they did not invest in developing their people to master Excel.

Most big companies depend on Excel to prepare their reports and perform their analysis. They have to do that because the data collected remain unchanged but the business environment changes.

The systems these MNCs uses depend on the team to maintain their system and the quality of the data. They do not have extra capacity to create reports.

The staff has to be self-sufficient and analyze the data on their own to develop strategies and solve problems.

Without Excel, they would be completely dependent on the IT staff which is in severe shortage. The company cannot implement programs if they are totally reliant on the IT department.

And the IT department does not have the domain knowledge to produce the reports the departments wanted. That’s why they have to depend on Excel and Power BI to generate the numbers and charts to make decisions.

If you encounter companies or managers who do not believe in Excel but only in systems, think carefully about whether they are a good fit for you.

IF you are keen to develop your people to excel in their job using business analytics, head over to our courses section to see how we could help you.