Through our business courses in our MBA programs we learn that management is all about justifying our actions through numbers. This is part of our scientific mindset in the new age and it is difficult to shake. The problem is that we as Americans are losing our business competitiveness because we are so focused on the numbers and not on being creative. The numbers should not be the sole source of management decision making.

There is no substitute for data. It is important to do one’s research before embarking on major corporate changes that could potentially cost a company millions if not billions. There is a big difference between going blindly into change and going with some knowledge. However, sometimes the numbers don’t always reflect good common sense and innovative thinking.

In today’s world we have a propensity to use the numbers to determine our course of action. For example, we might poll our managers in order to determine what items are important to them and choose a management style that they can all live with. We may also poll our customers and find out that they like a particular feature or want improvement in some area. Thus we base our decisions on these data.

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We also may look at our costs, profits and productivity to determine how we are going to emphasis our business approach. For example, we find that if we buy cheaper supplies we can earn better profits. Even though there will be a small affect on the quality of our products it doesn’t appear, through the numbers, that our customers are concerned with quality. Sounds like good management right?

The issue is that we have put the chicken before the egg. We based our decision on numbers instead of using our creative minds first and then using the numbers to measure the potential impact of the decision. Isn’t it also possible that if we improved the quality of our supplies and finished product we could charge more money and earn more profits? Perhaps our company should consider developing a new feature that would attract more business?

One can see the immediate differences between letting numbers make your decisions and letting numbers justify your decision. There are many solutions to the same problem and it takes a certain amount of creativity to solve them. As a nation, if we all use the number but don’t use our creative skills, we slowly fall behind the rest of the business world. Those that develop new products, can find better ways of making them and can create innovative approaches are likely to pull ahead.