Olympics are in full swing. Billboards are flying around.

BUT critical data points are getting lost and it's a great business lesson: are YOU asking the right question?!

Here is what I mean:

1) It’s easy to celebrate the total medals, but for anyone who works with data, you know the denominator matters.

2) A country sending 232 athletes vs. 20 can dramatically distort the true picture of athletic excellence. Like in business, don't just look at the data without applying critical judgment. Ask: a) What is measured and b) what should we measure? (if the answer isn't the same, you're not measuring what matters...)

Here are a few examples:

🇫🇷 Team France just won a historic Biathlon gold with an incredibly lean squad. They have a tight roster of just 12 athletes in that discipline. So, if you look at their medal-per-athlete efficiency in that discipline, it’s through the roof! It highlights specialized excellence and strategic focus.

🇺🇸 Team USA floods disciplines like Freestyle Skiing and Snowboarding with sheer numbers. While they rack up more overall medals in these sports, their per-athlete efficiency is in fact surprisingly lower due to the volume strategy, comparatively. They have 56 athletes (32 in Freestyle, 24 in Snowboarding) in those disciplines, whereas a major competitor like France has only 29 (19 in Freestyle, 10 in Snowboarding).

This isn't about criticizing any team; it's about asking deeper questions.

Are we truly measuring success, or just capacity?

For businesses, understanding efficiency vs. raw output can reveal entirely different truths about performance. I write about this type of mindset in my blog. I hope you can join the community.

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