Data and information – planning what you need to gather, getting it, analyzing it, using it for decisions – is part of the great game of business.

Some like the process of data gathering, and finding out what the numbers mean.

Others would rather try to make the numbers dance to the story they want to tell.

In the end, whether data will enliven and enlighten your business depends on your ability and willingness (or sometimes, courage) to see and take action on what the numbers really mean.

Here's a range of opinions about data, information, and using it effectively:

The temptation to form premature theories upon insufficient data is the bane of our profession.
Sherlock Holmes

I don't see the logic of rejecting data just because they seem incredible.
Fred Hoyle

Intuition becomes increasingly valuable in the new information society precisely because there is so much data.
John Naisbitt

Data is not information. Information is not knowledge. Knowledge is not understanding. Understanding is not wisdom.
Unknown

Errors using inadequate data are much less than those using no data at all.
Charles Babbage

Education is not the piling on of learning, information, data, facts,
skills, or abilities – that's training or instruction – but is rather
making visible what is hidden as a seed.
Thomas More

No great marketing decisions have ever been made on quantitative data.
John Scully

Analytical software enables you to shift human resources from rote data collection to value-added customer service and support where the human touch makes a profound difference.
Bill Gates

Too often we forget that genius, too, depends upon the data within its reach, that even Archimedes could not have devised Edison's inventions.
Ernest Dimnet