"Winning requires the right data and analytics approach to provide insight to decision-makers at the right time."

Investment banking is a high-risk, high-reward game where fiscal expertise meets strategic business decision-making. Its path was altered forever by deregulation in financial markets, and opportunities arose for global majors and boutique houses to influence international business direction. Investment bankers are among the grand strategists of this terrain, consulting companies on everything from mergers and acquisitions (M&A) to initial public offering (IPO) fundraising. It requires a tough, facts-first attitude and a sophisticated grasp of complicated financial architecture to make a go of this career. Meritshot's certification course aims to create the next generation of investment banking leaders.

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Fig 1.1 The four stages of business analytics

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CHAPTER 1

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1.1 A Brief Guide to Investment Banking

Investment banking is a specialized banking business that helps individuals, businesses, and governments to raise capital and offers financial advisory services to these entities. They act as the middlemen between companies (who need money for expansion) and investors (who own funds to invest). Key activities include underwriting new debt and equity securities of any kind of companies, facilitating selling securities, and facilitating merger and acquisition.

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Fig 1.2 Information sustainable cycle of data

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1.2 Business Model & Strategy

Investment banking's business model is one that revolves around offering a variety of financial services. Its strategy here is to use profound sector knowledge and close ties to create value for customers. It involves an innovation-driven, customer-led model supported by strategic partnerships, and data insight. Data science adds muscle to the model in the shape of enhanced valuations of companies, advanced financial modeling, and forecasting market trends analytics, enhancing the quality of counsel and implementation.

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Fig 1.3 Data science strengthens the business

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1.3 Customers and Markets: Whom an Investment Banker Serves

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It serves Enterprise for example Big local, national, and international companies with sophisticated financial needs. Such clients require tailored services for large-box M&A, corporate reorganization, and raising large capital.

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Also, Commercial like Growth-oriented mid-market firms. These customers are likely to require small-deal services, growth equity, and financing through debt.

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and Service Providers like Private equity firms, hedge funds, and institution investors who depend on the deal flow, execution ability, and market understanding of the investment banks.

Apart from that, Public Sector like Government agencies and public authorities that need support for infrastructure financing, privatization, and management of public funds.

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Fig 1.4 Example of business performance dashboards

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1.4 International Expansion

Investment banking is an international business in its nature. Foreign expansion is the effort of a bank to expand in foreign markets to serve multinational clients and leverage domestic growth opportunities. Data science is among the key ingredients in this because it makes it possible to analyze markets, analyze risks, and tailor financial products to suit various regimes. Meritshot's Curriculum and Global Market Insights

* Module 1 introduces students to the world of finance and how Hong Kong, Japan, and European markets are interlinked.

* Module 4 global M&A strategy is geared to enable students to appreciate cross-border structuring deals and thus become more competitive globally.

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Fig 1.5 International Expansion

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1.5 CSR & Ethical Sourcing

Ethics and corporate responsibility are the norm in investment banking. Banks get to leverage analytics at the intersection of data, harnessing insight from everywhere on the planet to facilitate ethical decision-making and compliance. It requires an ethical framework with a high ability to sustain clients' trust and address complicated regimes of regulation. It entails applying data to build open, sustainable, and accountable financial solutions.

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1.6 Innovation & Product Development

With the previous decades, it has emerged that businesses that utilise data as a competitive business asset are dominating industries. Following the financial industry revolution, organizations have new challenges that must be confronted. In response to increasing data quantities, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) are employed to innovate.

We have a niche course at Meritshot where we can implement AI and ML practices. There is an opportunity to use the tools to bring about change where there is huge potential. Top-line solutions for growth resulting in incremental revenue is one of the main areas of interest. Bottom-line cost-saving solutions that lower the cost of doing business are also major. Customer and employee experience solutions, resulting in an enhanced experience for a company's customers or employees, is an important space.

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1.7 Partnerships & Collaboration

The Meritshot Professional Certification course provides one-on-one tools to get new solutions to market. For instance, our partnerships with industry experts produce a combined total of over six sets of different case studies in one community and in one virtual environment. Our community has expanded to the point where the whole business unit is invited to join.

Our end-to-end collaboration platform includes social content, presence, and communication. With extremely social-enabled communities, user collaboration based on context is always actionable and therefore boosts productivity and speeds up results.

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1.8 Challenges & Outlook

A career in investment banking is multidimensional, involving financial modeling, relationship management with clients, deal-making, and quality control, and executive oversight. As a working team, professionals need efficient collaboration mechanisms that are able to empower them to succeed and address challenges in their work. Program managers spend excess time (6 to 8 hours weekly) manually creating team status.

The Changing Role of Data in a Hyper-Connected World

Organizations are beginning to connect their processes, systems, and data both inside and outside their organizations. They are linking them, and they are producing enormous amounts of data, and the data is spread across numerous locations—data warehouses, the cloud, and the edge. The ones who can connect the dots between the disconnected and make their data accessible for strategic consumption will reign supreme in their industry.

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1.9 Conclusion

Meritshot can use data science to innovate, become competitive, and grow sustainably. We can make learning better for our students and increase our course offerings using data science in our business model, strategies, and projects.

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