It would be easy to just call business, even those parts which aren’t focused on money and data, just a bunch of number-crunching. However, statistics play an important role in business decision making, and they should play an important role. The role of statistics in business decision making is to give the people making decisions all the information they need to make an informed decision. In order to make the best decisions in any situation having good information is essential. It would be easy to let emotions like excitement or fear guide decision making, but that cannot work for business organizations. Therefore, businesses need empirical data that helps them see the big picture as well as the little details. Statistics also help businesses identify and make use of trends and patterns in data. They provide businesses with a look at how things have performed over a certain time period, and with the right kind of data, businesses can even project how things might look in the future. Organizations can make plans that can help drive the direction and health of the organization. Using statistics shows the shareholders – which may include employees, investors, clients, and partners – that the organization is attempting to use appropriate tools and resources in appropriate ways in order to make sound, informed decisions. Having the hard data helps organizations make decisions which are more objective, more results-oriented, and more practical. That’s not to say that people will always like the decisions made based on data; after all, no one wants to lose their job, and people are always disappointed when a company discontinues a favorite product. But companies have to make money and consider a lot of factors in their decision making in order to remain viable and healthy, and statistics can help them manage all those factors.