Tree Maps
Have you ever heard of Tree Maps? In fact, a Tree map is a Big Brother of both Bar Charts and Pie Charts.
Tree-maps are a complex but powerful information visualization technique.
They were introduced in Shneiderman, 1992. Tree Maps are used to visualize hierarchical data as a set of nested rectangles.
As mentioned, the concept of tree-maps is basically from Ben Shneiderman
You can read a wonderful article by Ben Sheneiderman titled " Discovering Business Intelligence Using Tree-map Visualizations.
Tree maps can show relatives size of each component in the hierarchy and also use color coding to show another attribute. Here is an example of a simple tree-map .
This picture is taken from Wikipedia
The size of Rectangle denotes the waiting time for patients in NHS Primary care Trust in UK.
There is another variant of Tree maps that uses circles instead of rectangles. Someone called it as pebbles. Here is an example of a pebbles Chart.
This shows GDP Per capita of countries in PPP Terms in $ International
This is the same data in a Tree chart
Creating Tree-maps is a Complex work and need considerable skills . Here I provide you two easiest ways to create Tree maps.
Try few Tree maps now....
Tree-maps are a complex but powerful information visualization technique.
They were introduced in Shneiderman, 1992. Tree Maps are used to visualize hierarchical data as a set of nested rectangles.
As mentioned, the concept of tree-maps is basically from Ben Shneiderman
You can read a wonderful article by Ben Sheneiderman titled " Discovering Business Intelligence Using Tree-map Visualizations.
Tree maps can show relatives size of each component in the hierarchy and also use color coding to show another attribute. Here is an example of a simple tree-map .
This picture is taken from Wikipedia
The size of Rectangle denotes the waiting time for patients in NHS Primary care Trust in UK.
This shows GDP Per capita of countries in PPP Terms in $ International
This is the same data in a Tree chart
Creating Tree-maps is a Complex work and need considerable skills . Here I provide you two easiest ways to create Tree maps.
1. Use Microsoft Excel
2. Use ManyEyes, an IBM Initiative to create and share data visualizations on Web
Visit my earlier Post on Many Eyes : Text Visualization-Many Eyes
Microsoft Research Provides a Free excel Add-in, that makes the job of creating Interactive Tree Maps in Excel easy.
Here is the link to download Excel Add-in
1.Tree Maps Free Excel add in - Link 1
2.Tree Maps Free Excel Add in - Alternative Link from Microsoft Store.
2.Tree Maps Free Excel Add in - Alternative Link from Microsoft Store.
for more advanced users who can handle xmls , Here is a site to download a Java based Tree visualization Programme. Here is the Link
According to the web site,
The project currently consists of a file browser demo, which visualizes the file system with the following tree diagrams:
- Hyperbolic Tree
- Circular Tree-map
- Rectangular Tree-map
- Sunburst Tree
- Icicle Tree
- Sunray Tree
- Iceray Tree
Beware... Busy Executive
Inspiration from Google ;-)
Many a time you receive Motivating emails, Impressive quotations, elegantly crafted CVs, Well drafted letters and Reports with linguistic gymnastics.
Copy a couple of sentences and Google them. Bingo.
You will reach the original article! The right word is Plagiarism.
India rocks with second-highest users after the USA
sea this example
Not even a single spelling error! WOW!
All errors are typo errors!
Follow these steps to activate the contextual spell checker:
By the way. Here though this deals with issues like time management and prioritization,Focus-energy, here is a 2002 publication from HBR titled Beware The Busy Manager.
You can download this HBR article.
Copy a couple of sentences and Google them. Bingo.
You will reach the original article! The right word is Plagiarism.
It’s not uncommon for a busy executive to copy content from the Internet and create presentations and documents. The same is true while using documents from your colleagues.
Whenever you are dealing with office documents, you must remember, the official documents carry with them their properties.
What are the properties of a document?
Go to FILE in the menu on the document >> Click on PROPERTIES
You will be amazed to see the extent of information available.
Details like TITLE, AUTHOR may cause embarrassment if you have copied someone else’s file and updated the same file.
Change the author's name and other properties if you wish to avoid embarrassments.
Maybe many are not aware of the document properties… However, YOU must know!
Imagine if you had copied the CV format of your colleague and just changed the contents here and there and it goes to an HR guy who knows how to check the properties of a document!
The embarrassment is completely avoidable.
LinkedIn
LinkedIn… it's powerful with more than 175 million users. 17 Plus are from India!
If you wish to use LinkedIn for “personal branding”, do not forget to…
Be visible…add Photo, complete profile in all respects.
Recommendations …get them.
Add value …join groups and participate in discussions.
Network … connecting is not collecting…
Differentiate yourself by demonstration of skills through Slide share and Bolg link..
Though certain exposure is important, overexposure may be counterproductive! If you want to protect your privacy, change the settings so that, you can control who can see your updates!
Though certain exposure is important, overexposure may be counterproductive! If you want to protect your privacy, change the settings so that, you can control who can see your updates!
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| Click to enlarge |
Spell Check :
Today’s executives in most corporates are either Gen X or Gen Y who were brought up in the internet milieu and very few have learned traditional, almost extinct typewriters!
The result is a high degree of dependence on computers!
With extensive use of computers, you are vulnerable to bloopers!
Blooper!
Complete faith and trust in spell checker!
A spell checker can guarantee you "correctly spelt words in a wrong context!"
sea this example
Dear Mad am,
I am Robert. This has reference to the telecon we had this morning regarding the role of communication export. I understand that man ageing communications is knot a joke. I am glad to inform that I attained expertise in this field as manger communications as I lead a team. I am known to be an excellent pubic speaker. would love to meat you in person to discus the some issue. I request you to send me the data and time for meeting. Please do give a massage to confirm the same. Mr. James, the HR executive must also be waiting for this massage to insure that he is present during the meeting. Please piss on the information. The summery bellow should help you prepare for the meeting. I wish to inform you that seven mules and one female colleague from our department will also be cum and attend the meeting.
Warm regards,
Robert
Most often, the problem is homophones ,similar sounding words like “their” and “there” and also with similar spelling words like “manager” and “manger”.
Check the list of British English Homophones
However, Good News is here....
Office 2007 and 2010 introduced Contextual spell checker!
Follow these steps to activate the contextual spell checker:
Step 1: Click office button
Step 2: Open Word Options
Step 3: Click Proofing
Step 4: In the When Correcting Spelling and Grammar in Word section, select the Use Contextual Spelling check box. Now Click OK. That's it!
God bless the team and Bill Gates!
You can download this HBR article.
Tasks and Timelines
Projectization (I'm sure this is a new word!) of every task assigned is in vogue in every corporate!
Gantt charts are simple tools to represent the project schedule and status.
There are many types with various degree of complexity, however, a simple and easy Gantt chart can be created using excel.
You will be essentially tracking
Here you can download the excel tool. you can also download it from @Downloads
Its a DO.. CO..MO.. stuff (Download, Copy ,Modify)
Gantt charts are simple tools to represent the project schedule and status.
There are many types with various degree of complexity, however, a simple and easy Gantt chart can be created using excel.
- Who will do?
- What will they do?
- When will they do?
- How long it takes to do?
Here you can download the excel tool. you can also download it from @Downloads
Its a DO.. CO..MO.. stuff (Download, Copy ,Modify)
Coursera : MOOCs, Massive Open Online Courses
About Coursera
We are a social entrepreneurship company that partners with the top universities in the world to offer courses online for anyone to take, for free. We envision a future where the top universities are educating not only thousands of students but millions. Our technology enables the best professors to teach tens or hundreds of thousands of students.
We are a social entrepreneurship company that partners with the top universities in the world to offer courses online for anyone to take, for free. We envision a future where the top universities are educating not only thousands of students but millions. Our technology enables the best professors to teach tens or hundreds of thousands of students.
Through this, we hope to give everyone access to the world-class education that has so far been available only to a select few. We want to empower people with education that will improve their lives, the lives of their families, and the communities they live in.
Test your Linkedin Quotient !
LinkedIn Quotient.
Yes. It is a new, essential, corporate metric!
Here is a site that tells you how well you are leveraging LinkedIn in 2 minutes.
The site has lots of stuff to learn.
You can learn how you can unleash the power of connections.
How to make business communications on LinkedIn
Try it Out. The LinkedInman
Click her or the image to test your LinkedIn Quotient !
The ' Z ' Graph for Sales - Short, Medium and Long-term Sales analysis - All at once at a glance!
Short, Medium and Long-term Sales analysis - All at once at a glance!
Sales progress is best shown in graphs.
Here is a consultant's style of showing Long-term, Medium-term and Short-term sales progress - all in one graph. All you need is, sales data for this year till this month, and the past 12 months of sales data.
The magic of the graph is it not only throws light on the long-term, medium-term and short-term, it also can show how good is your near future going to be!
The magic of the graph is it not only throws light on the long-term, medium-term and short-term, it also can show how good is your near future going to be!
Caution!
Show it only if you have healthy & right data...if you are facing projector lens :-)
Show it only if you have healthy & right data...if you are facing projector lens :-)
If you are the one on the other side of the lens , never forget to ask for this graph ;-)
This is called "Z" Graph.
Now let us see what are these long term, medium-term and short term sales progress
Long term sales progress is best represented by Rolling MAT
Long term sales progress is best represented by Rolling MAT
MAT - Moving Annual Total (sum of last 12 months data - till this month)
e.g: MAT Jan-11 = Feb-10 + Mar-10 +……+ Dec-10 + Jan-11
MAT Feb-11 = Mar-10 + Apr-10 +……+ Dec-10 + Feb-11
Medium term sales progress is best represented by YTD
YTD - Year To Date (Cumulative sales starting from the beginning of the year ..say JAN)
e.g. YTD Apr-11 = Jan-11 + Feb-11 + Mar-11 + Apr-11
YTD Jul-11 = Jan-11 + Feb-11 + Mar-11 + Apr-11 + May-11 + Jun-11 + Jul-11
Short term sales progress is best represented by monthly sales
e.g. Jan-11 , Feb-11 , Mar-11 , Apr-11.....
Bring all the data on to a single graph, it becomes a Z-Graph.
Bring all the data on to a single graph, it becomes a Z-Graph.
Do not undermine the Graph, the shape of “Z”, the angle inclination, slope of arms of “Z” can through new insights.
“Z” Graph is best for sales dashboards.
“Z” Graph is best for sales dashboards.
Once you plot MAT,YTD and Month, You should get a graph that more or less looks like this…
The 
Red line represents Rolling MAT
Blue represents YTD and
Green represents Monthly sales
Just to stir your thoughts, here I present you 3 scenarios!
The shape of the “Z” should give you the complete picture.
Here is one more idea to explore...
Plot your Months-To-Go and corresponding expected YTD and expected MAT figures as per the Targets/Quotas of Months-To-Go. You may get a perfect "Z" Ora a distorted "Z" like this.....
If the shape of "Z" is... as shown in the picture, it is obvious that risk is ahead unless you have a strategy to defy the trends!
All the best!
Download the excel workbook to understand better! Click Here
alternatively @downloads on this website
It's a DO.. CO..MO.. stuff (Download, Copy ,Modify)
Download the excel workbook to understand better! Click Here
alternatively @downloads on this website
It's a DO.. CO..MO.. stuff (Download, Copy ,Modify)
Acknowledgements and Reference article by David Straker
One visit to David Straker’s sites will make you a regular visitor.
....In his words….
Syque (pronounced 'sike') is my knowledge-sharing site.
My purpose is to share knowledge and understanding on an unprecedented scale, adding real value for individuals and companies. Consider it as 'original books on the internet', with already over 7,000 web pages of industrial-strength knowledge freely available.