So you made $1.00 yesterday, and make $1.01 today.

For a change, let me hear something from you that doesn't reiterate the obvious, or suggests a little more insight beyond it.

Anybody can look at numbers and spit them back and sound impressive. Not everybody knows what to do with them and bring impressive results. And to do that, you have to know what the numbers mean. That's just what separates the business people from the bean-counters.

In these days when the chips are down, the true mettle of people occupying leadership positions (note that I am not calling them 'business leaders') is being brought out and to the test. While numbers are indeed the sole barometer of results, proper interpetation of those numbers is what is needed to guide action to create both immediate, sustainable, and significant (hint, hint, avek) impact.

Instead, we're getting rote reliance on absolute numerical figures. My first-grade teacher taught me that plus means up, and minus means down, too. But what's it in the big picture?

[This message has been edited by Beef or Chicken? (edited 09-08-2002).]