Knowledge From Numbers?And People

Both these require spending more time with people and less time with spreadsheets. Our customers and staffs have the answers to these questions. They are not to be found in some mythical Lotus 123 formula.

I knew a print manager who spent his days writing numbers in notebooks. He could tell you the day-by-day history of the price of bond paper. I'd look at his row of binders and ask, "What does it all mean? What are they telling you?" He really didn't know—or, as Neil Young put it,"The numbers add up to nothing." Guess what? He's no longer managing a print shop.