With data and analytics representing an exciting frontier and untold potential for business, Fisher has launched a new graduate degree designed to prepare individuals with analytics skills, techniques and tools to transform data into insights to make better business decisions.

Fisher’s Specialized Master of Business degree program in Business Analytics (SMB-A) equips professionals with an understanding of the science of data analytics and its impact on business innovation, productivity and growth. The new program, which is accepting applications, will begin in autumn 2018.

Leveraging Fisher’s world-class faculty and rigorous, experiential curriculum, the SMB-A provides students with unique skills in an area primed for tremendous growth. A report by McKinsey Global Institute predicted a potential shortage of up to nearly 200,000 U.S. workers who possess deep analytical skills by 2018, as well as a shortage of 1.5 million data-savvy managers with analytics skills.

Learn more about the SMB-A program

“Fisher’s SMB-A program directly addresses this workforce need and the needs of countless businesses and organizations around the world,” said Greg Allenby, co-academic director of the SMB-A program and a professor of marketing and logistics. “Data and data collection is in everything we do — from how we shop, to how we choose our music to how we consume our news and entertainment.

“What this degree program does is differentiate those who have the skills and experience to harness, visualize and utilize this increasing flow of data as leaders at their companies and organizations.”

Fisher’s SMB-A incorporates innovative hallmarks of the Fisher experience that have distinguished the college as a leader in business education. The 10-month program offers a learning model that blends online instruction with weekend classes. The result is a program that accommodates the schedules of working professionals while maintaining access for non-working professionals.

In addition to a curriculum built around descriptive, predictive and prescriptive analytics, the SMB-A provides students the opportunity to complete a capstone project using real data from students’ employers or other organizations partnered with Fisher’s SMB-A program. The result is a rigorous, hands-on and fast-paced experience that reflects today’s intersection of technology, business and analytics.

“The SMB-A is a relevant, high-impact graduate degree that appeals to professionals from across multiple fields and industries,” said Waleed Muhanna, co-academic director of the SMB-A program and a professor of accounting and management information systems. “Those who enroll in the SMB-A are taking control of their career development as data-savvy professionals and consultants and are choosing to elevate themselves as leaders in an area that is critical to business now and for generations to come.”

Apply to the SMB-A program