Welcome to the first course in the Data Analytics for Business Specialization. Straight away I'm going to let you in on a little secret, we won't actually be doing any analytics in course one. What's that you say? I thought I was here to learn analytics, is this some sort of bait and switch? I promise you it's not. It turns out that if you want to be a great data analyst in a real organization, there's a whole lot of other things you need to understand to be successful. In our experience most analytic courses are great at covering methods. But they don't necessary prepare you to apply them as part of an analytic team in the real world. This is what we focus on in course one, specifically we are going to spend most of our time speaking to two big ideas. The first idea is that there is an overall process that describes how we think about analytical problems. And the path that information takes from real world events to actions in the marketplace. The second idea is that there are important elements that support the analytic environment, namely people, tools, and organizational structures. We'll break these ideas out and throw in a little skill-based learning in four modules. In the first module, we'll introduce that process called the information action value chain. And we'll cover the first part of that value chain in detail. In the second module, we'll talk about analytical technologies and the tool sets that analysts and data workers use to create and manage analytical environment. In the third module, we'll go deep into one step in our process in one particular type of tool. By learning how to extract data from relational databases using code called Structured Query Language or SQL, I'll be honest, that one is my favorite. In the fourth module, we'll focus on the people, the organization, and the policies that guide analytics in real companies. Our hope is that by giving you a solid foundation in how analytics really work. You'll be much more successful at actually using those methods and executing analytics to have a real impact in your organization. Surfing is as much a mental exercise as it is a physical one. You can be strong and flexible, but if you can't see what's coming and interpret it correctly, you'll never catch a wave, and you might even get hurt. When you learn how to surf you spend a lot of time on the beach watching how the ocean works. You need to understand the break, you need to have the right tools for the right wave. You need to know who else is out there, how they might behave, and what rules you need to follow when surfing with others. You also discover that while riding the wave is the fun part, most of the work is paddling out and getting yourself in the right position, to catch the wave in the first place. Above all else, surfing is a sport that requires you to operate in harmony with your environment, to reach your maximum potential. We want you to learn how to understand your environment and how the practice of analytics really works. We want you to learn how to think about analytical problems, and know how to approach them before you ever step foot into the water, so to speak. So let's get started, see you in module one.