Give a numbers-orientated person two sets of numbers - and she will be able to fit a curve to the two sets of numbers without really knowing what those numbers mean and stand for.
Have a look at the latest NASDAQ indices - and run them through some curve-fitting exercise, or if you're feeling a little too sophisticated, use a neural network and have it "learn" the ups and downs of the curves - and project the future.
Ask anybody to conduct a survey and with the plethora of free (or cheap) surveying tools and panels online, you'll have 300 respondents in a matter of days (if not hours).
Anybody can do these things - but not everyone can make sense of these numbers and ground them on real business issues.
It takes a real analytically-minded person to find stories behind numbers. Stories behind numbers are not just uncovered by equations or cross-tabs or statistical significance tests.
It all starts with an understanding of the business.
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