"An exact knowledge of conditions, and consequent timely application of praise or of constructive criticism, is one of the chief forces of the executive in securing satisfactory results. Undeserved criticism is unjust and destroys-initiative, while unmerited praise tends to render the executive ridiculous in the eyes of his subordinates; both are detrimental to discipline and weaken the power of the executive." (Allan C Haskell, "How to Make and Use Graphic Charts", 1919)
"The problem of the executive, then - once his organization is perfected - is to secure live data covering the exact conditions of the business at all times. These data should be arranged so as to give him all the facts, subordinated according to their relative bearing upon net earnings, and do so with the least demand upon his time. Furthermore, these facts must be so exhibited that the general laws underlying the business may be easily and accurately deduced and standards of accomplishment set which will be a continual incentive to greater accomplishment." (Allan C Haskell, "How to Make and Use Graphic Charts", 1919)
"Wherever unusual peaks or valleys occur on a curve it is a good plan to mark these points with a small figure inside a circle. This figure should refer to a note on the back of the chart explaining the reason for the unusual condition. It is not always sufficient to show that a certain item is unusually high or low; the executive will want to know why it is that way." (Allan C Haskell, "How to Make and Use Graphic Charts", 1919
"An economic justification for computer graphics is that the organization spends an enormous amount of money on data processing, often providing managers with too many reports, too many data, and an overload of information. The report output has to be condensed into a more usable form. The computer graph essentially is the data represented in a structured pictorial form. The role of the graph is to provide meaningful reports. To the extent that it does. it can be justified." (Anker V Andersen, "Graphing Financial Information: How accountants can use graphs to communicate", 1983)
"Without meaningful data there can be no meaningful analysis. The interpretation of any data set must be based upon the context of those data. Unfortunately, much of the data reported to executives today are aggregated and summed over so many different operating units and processes that they cannot be said to have any context except a historical one - they were all collected during the same time period. While this may be rational with monetary figures, it can be devastating to other types of data." (Donald J Wheeler, "Understanding Variation: The Key to Managing Chaos" 2nd Ed., 2000)
"Organizations face challenges of all kinds after activating their new systems. To be sure, these challenges are typically not as significant as those associated with going live. Still, executives and end users should never assume that system activation means that everyone is home free. Systems are hardly self-sufficient, and issues always appear." (Phil Simon, "Why New Systems Fail: An Insider’s Guide to Successful IT Projects", 2010)
Most discussions of decision making assume that only senior executives make decisions or that only senior executives' decisions matter. This is a dangerous mistake. Decisions are made at every level of the organization, beginning with individual professional contributors and frontline supervisors. These apparently low-level decisions are extremely important in a knowledge-based organization." (Zach Gemignani et al, "Data Fluency", 2014)
Along with the important information that executives need to be data literate, there is one other key role they play: executives drive data literacy learning and initiatives at the organization." (Jordan Morrow, "Be Data Literate: The data literacy skills everyone needs to succeed", 2021)
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