Characteristics of Data

Entrepreneurs need to know data. Knowing data is key to an entrepreneur. We need to be able to tell how much cash we have on hand, what our profit is, the average number of days it takes to get paid, what our average revenue is, and on and on. We need to be able to analyze data on our market, data on our company, and so on and so forth.

Two characteristics describe any set of data, whether it is a listing of batting averages in major league baseball, the amount of rainfall per day in the Amazon, or the height and weight of some group of people.

These two characteristics are dispersion and central tendency. Dispersion refers to data's tendency to spread out along some continuum. Height in humans runs from 3+ feet or so to 8+ feet. Yearly batting averages in baseball run from 000 to 1000. Temperatures measured in degrees F run from -100 or so to over 200. Measurements vary, but data tends to spread out within some range.

Central tendency refers to data's tendency to clump around some figure, often called an "average." A baseball player's batting average is really the average of all the averages he compiles in all the games he plays in. A hitter can hit from 000 to 1000 in a game. If he gets 5 hits in 5 at bats, he gets to "bat a thousand" or 1000. If he's hitless he bats 000. Average those and you get some figure usually between 200 and 300 though good hitters usually average in the 300 to 350 range. Terrible hitters can average under 100. Average temperatures are available on the weather in exhausting detail but are probably 75 degrees or so F on a pleasant day in the summer.

You can look in any statistics book or on line and you'll get lots of detail about measures of central tendency and dispersion. Sufficient for now to realize that an entrepreneur needs to know about this stuff and be comfortable talking about it and using it. If you don't know what I'm talking about, you should get education.

Entrepreneurship is the life's blood of all my professional activities. It makes them go. And go read my mystery for free at wwww.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com or buy it from Amazon.com more cheaply than you can print it out.