4. Numbers

• Communicating the numbers means first and foremost that they are correct and credible. Even one bad number can undermine your hard work.
• Numbers are objective, but they lack meaning without context or a baseline. We all know what 10,000 means. Without a context or comparison, we don’t know how to interpret it. It might be very disappointing as a salary but nice as a bonus or raise. If it’s the Dow Jones Industrial closing, it matters whether it’s up or down from recent closings as well as what it means historically.
• The goal should be to provide the relevant numbers in a context that allows them to be interpreted as needed for decision-making.

An NCR executive was giving a presentation; he had great slides and an even better delivery. The CEO, Chuck Exley, listened to the entire presentation in his typically gracious, courteous manner. At the conclusion, he nodded and said somethings brief but profound: “Good story, but it’s hard to look smart with bad numbers.

And as I reflected on it, the presenter, articulate as he was, as good as his slides were, simply had bad numbers. That comment has always stayed with me. You have to focus on the underlying substance, … Deliver good numbers and you earn the right for people to listen to you.

The Best Advice I Ever Got by Mark Hurd, Chairman and CEO, Hewlett-Packard