Managers receive more information than they can take in. In fact, their information absorption capacity is the main bottleneck in Business Intelligence. Here are a few ways we can increase it.

Together with Rolf Hichert, we have been battling against graphical opulence and anorexic content in reporting since 2007. Recently, we hosted our tenth, joint Advanced Seminar on Industrial Reporting [...]

People often talk big when they talk about BI. Exaggerations go along with the hype but they remain what they are: exaggerated. Today, we are going to talk back – about the ROI that BI can deliver.

Logarithmic cynics, get ready for part 2 of our U.S. national debt analysis and our continuing crusade for charts with integrity. Today, we will give the final death blow to linear scales.

People say that whether you use a logarithmic scale or a linear one for the development of national debt, the world population or the global climate depends on what you want to show. Wrong, we say. Linear [...]

On 8 July 2011, a Space Shuttle flew into space for the last time. Two of its predecessors had crashed thanks to PowerPoint – or rather, the information culture of slide stacks. Here’s why display [...]

It seems that nothing can shake people’s confidence in traffic light systems. Günther Beckstein, a former Bavarian Minister of the Interior and later Bavarian Prime Minister, tried to use them to protect [...]

I can’t stop thinking about Berlin. Let’s head once again into the ballroom and look up at what was once a gallery. Bank managers used to stand up there many years ago. Do we need to observe something [...]

To find the right way in an emergency, Reinhold Messner would follow yak manure. We shouldn’t believe, however, that ‘maps’ in management reports are much clearer. We learned that and much more [...]

Sick and tired of deceitful charts? We have developed a rule of thumb to help you test the validity of line charts. Just type in four values and you’ll probably know more than the numskull who, in most [...]

Machines can travel to Mars, play soccer, and even win at Jeopardy. At our upcoming event in Berlin, we will be making a plea for more intuition and automation in management reporting – both driven [...]

On May 27th, we will discuss the topic ‘Management between Intuition and Automation’ at Hotel de Rome in Berlin. Human intuition filters and summarizes details into signals. Business Intelligence [...]

Last time we talked about cause and effect in texts – without charts. This time, the effect is in the chart and the cause is in the text. And the proportions work as well: many words, some numbers [...]

Few things present effects better than a good chart. Effects - not causes. Once again, we will explore the possibilities and limitations of our favorite subject by taking a closer look at its polar opposite: [...]

We didn’t get around to this last year but are now delivering as promised. The second part of our year in review shows the things that annoyed us the most in 2010. Marketing still manages [...]

Business Intelligence is colorful. Our list of tops and flops for 2010 is just as colorful. In this first, upbeat part, we will show best practices that range from the backdrop of a shooting scene to [...]

Engineers and architects express their requirements in technical jargon and in numbers. They use different scales to visualize different scenarios for different tasks. We’d like that as well. Here are [...]

Wouldn’t it be great if there were signals for managers, investors, savers and for politicians that would be as clear as a red light is for drivers and pedestrians? Clear correlations between signal [...]

Some charts need more than 1,000 words. Yet, sometimes, seven words can be more effective than a chart. Today, we will put an end to the myth that all charts are pictures – and chatterboxes as well.

The trilogy is complete: We have published sparklines in three different ways on newspaper. That’s reason enough to take a breather – and take stock of our efforts. We now understand why newspapers [...]

Good design breaks rules, from time to time. Two such rules are: Avoid symbols in most cases and circles in all. Today two exceptions provide surprising facets of detail.

People who expect secure forecasts are usually wrong – and those who expect an unsecure future are usually right. That applies in both games and life.

Dear marketing, we business people don’t need ISO norms or balance sheet guidelines to understand things better. Therefore please leave the color red to us. Because it means something. The same thing [...]

Sparklines are eloquent, but monosyllabic. Literally. Dealing with line breaks is anything but easy. We explored these and other challenges in writing with sparklines.

Sparklines are a breathtaking intellectual delight. Especially on paper. Now we have also tried it on newsprint. In Traffic News-to-go.

There are many reasons why the fans of analog media have nothing to fear in a digital world – aside from the fact that you can’t wrap a fish in an iPad. But the even our digital world will no longer [...]

In BI, we often talk about steering and control. But who is actually steering – and what? Aren’t we just constantly adapting ourselves? Notes from a conversation about our understanding of management [...]