How’s business?
It’s a question that gets asked every day, but what does the answer really mean? For most companies, “doing well” means sales are better than last year while “doing okay” means sales are about the same.
The problem is that nobody is an industry of one. Everybody competes for customers and clients.
You might think you're doing well but what if you're not?
Transcript
CEO: Turns out we suck.
BOARD: But you told use we were leading our industry.
CEO: Uh... I guess I was wrong.
BOARD: Uh.... guess we were wrong, too — about you.
As University of Wisconsin professor Jordan Ellenberg noted in this Wall Street Journal article about using data to make good decisions, "A number by itself is often meaningless; it is the comparison between numbers that carries the force."