The Practical Application of Statistics in the Business World—How Much Mathematics does it Require?

Extract

In recent years there have been a number of papers read to statistical societies and much written on the place of the statistician in business. In the fields of quality control and operational research the position of the mathematical statistician is unchallenged. That of the statistician employed in the day-to-day running of a business is, however, very different. He may have had a mathematical training but is more likely to be an accountant or an economist. This has tempted the author to analyse the extent to which he, as a statistician in business, makes use of his mathematical and actuarial training and employs the mathematical techniques of the statistical textbook. Most of the energies of such a statistician are employed in the collection and tabulation of data; in the main his especial skills are based on an intimate knowledge of the sources of his information (which range from the firm's accounting system for internal statistics to the almost newspaper reporter tactics needed by the market intelligence statistician) and on a familiarity with the needs of the users of the figures (psychology can play its part too in their presentation).