1. Concrete Data
where there is
NO DATA

2. Who this deck is for
We – as management practitioners – love
data. We all love to back our proposals
with concrete data. Problem is: concrete
data is not always available, and in some
instances, plain impossible to collect.
Though anyone working with numbers will
benefit from this deck, it will especially add
value to
Marketers, whose action need to be based on
research and analysis
HR people, whose recommendations must be
backed by data
Senior managers and Accountants, who love figures

3. Who has bigger income?
or

4. Most of us can answer that
question, but very few of us
could do it in an
“academically sound” manner

5. But this guy – Steven D. Levitt, professor
of Economics at Harvard Business School
– did just that in his ground-breaking book
Freakonomics.

7. 4 meaningful factors determine a wage
SUPPLY
SKILLS
UNPLEASANTNESS
DEMAND

8. SUPPLY
Many kids grew up
dreaming of becoming
an architect when they
grow up

9. SUPPLY
However, no kid has ever
grown up wishing they
would become a prostitute

10. SKILLS
Many institutions can
provide the education
needed to excel in their
profession

11. SKILLS
The only institution that can
make one excel at the
profession is called
“Experience”

12. UNPLEASANTNESS
Zer0 chance of injury and
violence.

13. UNPLEASANTNESS
Likelihood of random
violence and the lost
opportunity of having a
stable family life

14. DEMAND
The architect is more likely to
hire the prostitute than the
other way round…

15. None Many
No institution
provides these skills
Skills provided by
many institutions
Uncountable Negligible
Significantly greater Significantly less

16. CONCLUSION
The typical prostitute earns more than the typical architect

17. It is that
“making your ratio zero:something or something:infinity”
approach which makes his assertions concrete. The approach
is useful because although we cannot always find the data for
both sides of the equation, we can almost always find one
side. This deck is dedicated to highlighting the fact that if you
look enough and think enough, you can talk concrete data
even when all or part of the equation is missing.
RECAP

18. Thank You!