What are the Three Mistakes a Business Analyst Should Avoid?

A business analyst is a front end job. They have to stand out on the expectations of many people. Their single mistake can hamper the profit of a company drastically. They have to meet the requirements of stakeholders. Responsibility of an Analyst is huge.

Every analyst is aware that a day can’t pass without a single mistake because of the vast market. But at the same time, mistakes can be anticipated and prevented. A business analyst must have that insight to restrain from the blunder. They need to work according to business ethics. 

Sean St. John has spent more than two decades in building a career in banking and finance. Currently Sean St. John serves as the Executive Vice President and Co-Head of Fixed Income, Currencies & Commodities at National Bank Financial in Toronto, Canada.

Occasionally during work Business Analyst also do make mistakes, but some of the major and critical mistakes that must be avoided are mentioned below for your convenience.

Due diligence:

An analyst should make a proper analysis of any sector or industry he is working upon. Thorough and rigorous research should be made before giving any recommendation for the stock or the company. Negligence of any small important information can question his estimation. Thus, a business analyst should always take information from many sources and then compare it, and come to a decision.

Assumptions:

To carry out any project or research a business analyst has to make different assumptions. But he should not forget that too many assumptions can ruin the thing. Making too many assumptions often indicates that an analyst is not good at that area. It reflects of he being a risk-averse analyst that means he is afraid to face the circumstances of the market. Always compare your past assumptions with actual results to get an idea of how to make these assumptions better.

Biases:

Business Analysts exhibit different biases that need to modified or corrected. The different biases shown by them are the illusion of knowledge bias, illusion of control bias, hindsight bias, anchoring and adjustment bias and many more.  These are the biases that should be corrected by them. Analyst presumes that they know everything and they are smarter then actually they are. The analyst feels that they has all tha available data but its not the case.

Business Analyst tends to take the credit for the success and blame others or external factors for their failure. Analysts must study the past trend to give a view or recommendation for the future. There may be many factors that may get neglected by them. There are regime switching that need not be overlooked.

A stock or company may seem impressive but actually may turn out to be a failure if the past trend is studied effectively. Thus, an analyst has to look at many factors before giving any report or view.