◆ Formulas I · drill · Spreadsheet Formulas & Data track
Compound it, three times
the average of the annual rates is not the growth rate — only the compounded rate lands back on the last year.
The segment pack is in and the IC wants one number per segment: the rate that actually compounded over the five years. The annual rates are printed below the build — they swing, and the simple average of them is already on the page. Compound each segment’s own growth rate, carry it three more years to the estimate column, and call the segment that grew fastest. The pack has been quoting those averages; the compound rates are the ask. The page anchors somewhere new every run.
The shortcuts in this drill
Ctrl+D⌘D on macFill down from the cell above
Build the logic once in the top cell, select down, and stamp it — the standard way to fill a schedule.
Ctrl+1⌘1 on macOpen the Format Cells dialog
The master formatting dialog — number formats, alignment, borders in one place when a ribbon walk would take longer.
Ctrl+I⌘I on macItalic
Italics are the convention for memos, footnotes, and anything explanatory rather than computed.
Ctrl+B⌘B on macBold
Bold marks structure: titles, total rows, anything the reviewer’s eye should land on first.
The optimal line
the par-setting sequence, straight through:
H3 =(F3/B3)^(1/4)-1 · I3 =F3*(1+H3)^3 · select H3:I5 ctrl+d · H3:H5 ctrl+1 p · I2:I5 ctrl+i · ctrl+b the highest · ctrl+s
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