Don Meadows, Editor
As of 14 January 2010, the total
As of 18 January 2010, the estimated world population was 6,797,198,335.
When the earthquake toppled buildings in
Day-to-day, we deal with such large numbers that they are essentially meaningless to us beyond being big, really big, even bigger, extremely big, and so big it makes my head spin.
The real meaning in the numbers becomes apparent and is best appreciated if we focus on one.
On a quarterly basis, for example, companies report revenues and expenses, profits and losses, etc., that can total millions or billions of their local currency. Sometimes one decision (good or bad) clearly affects results, such as whether to build one new paper machine or close one old mill. Less apparent and often less appreciated are the individual yes-no choices that amass each day.
The total effect – whether a company profits or goes out of business – is built on one customer making a decision to buy one company’s product over another, by one other customer making the same decision, and then an accumulation of one customer after another making the same purchasing decision. The one customer’s purchasing choice might be determined by how well or poorly one sheet of paper performs in one printer. The performance characteristics of that one sheet of paper can be maintained or enhanced by one employee doing his or her job well, or impaired by one other who becomes distracted at one critical point in the production process.
In