Strategic Issue

In Chapter 2: Corporate Governance, we introduced the balanced scorecard, a framework that balances financial performance (e.g., profitability, return on assets, stock price) with strategic performance related to customers, internal business processes, and employee learning and growth. Such an approach balances the short- and medium-term outcomes of financial metrics against the long-term impact of strategic ones. The balanced scorecard is useful for tracking performance on an ongoing basis. In this chapter, we want to provide a structure for how to report a firm’s progress against its plans and competitors—that is, communicating an organization’s performance to its stakeholders (owners, creditors, employees, or partners).

Organizational Performance

Organizational performance is a complex concept. It refers to how well an organization is performing with respect to its vision, mission, and goals. Assessing organizational performance is a vital aspect of strategic management. Executives must know how well their organizations are performing to figure out what strategic changes, if there are any, to make. Performance is a multifaceted idea, and a lot of attention needs to be paid to how it is assessed or measured.

Even good decisions can lead to poor outcomes. For example, betting $10 on a coin toss that pays $50 for heads and nothing for tails has an expected value of $20—making it a smart decision statistically. However, if the coin lands on tails, the outcome is still a loss. This illustrates that performance doesn’t always reflect decision quality. Similarly, unforeseen black swan events like COVID-19 can derail well-planned strategies, highlighting the need to evaluate both decision logic and external unpredictability.

By assuming what gets measured gets managed, that cause-and-effect links exist between drivers and outcomes, and that a balanced view reduces short-termism, the balanced scorecard can generate rigid interpretations. To avoid such errors, these measures should be paired with a socio-technical approach—aligning technical metrics with social processes through joint optimization, employee involvement, and feedback loops. This integration ensures strategy is both efficient and adaptive. By balancing both perspectives, organizations achieve resilience, adaptability, and sustainable performance.

Metrics and Benchmarks

Two important performance considerations are (1) measures and (2) benchmarks. A performance measure is a metric with which an organization’s progress can be gauged. Most executives examine measures such as profits, stock price, and sales to better understand how well their organizations are competing in the market. But these measures provide just a glimpse of organizational performance at a single point in time. Performance benchmarks are also needed to assess whether an organization is doing well. A performance benchmark is used to make sense of an organization’s standing compared to its own or a competitor’s financial measures and/or performance indicators. For example, a firm with a profit margin of 20% in 2024 sounds great on the surface. But, if that firm’s profit margin in 2023 was 35% and the average profit margin across all firms in the industry was 40%, then the firm’s 2024 performance may be cause for concern!

Large firms on the Fortune 500 list are ranked by sales, but this doesn’t always reflect strong performance in other areas like stock price growth. In fact, their size can make rapid improvement difficult. This shows why relying on a single referent—like sales—can be misleading. A variety of performance measures is needed to get a complete picture.

The number of performance referents that are relevant for understanding an organization’s performance can be overwhelming. For example, a study of what performance metrics were used within restaurant organizations’ annual reports found that 788 different combinations of measures and referents were used within this one industry in a single year (Short & Palmer, 2003). Indeed, Hick’s Law (William Edmund Hick was a British psychologist who pioneered new sciences in experimental psychology in the mid-20th century) suggests that decision making time increases logarithmically with every possible choice (Hick, 1952). Thus, executives need to choose a rich yet limited set of performance measures to focus on.

Business Analysis

The field of business analytics is growing quickly. Alongside creativity and purpose, a recent study identified analytics as the triple-play of growth for modern corporations (Gregg & Libarikian, 2021). The study looked at 800 executives across industries and found that companies that use these three priorities grow their businesses 2.3 times the rate of their peers. They found the unleashing of granular data and analytics on the behavior and preferences of their customers allows deep personal customer interaction and meaningful moments. “Companies that successfully deploy analytics with purpose outperform their peers” (Gregg & Libarikian, 2021).

Whether you’ll be delivering your report in writing or verbally, good reports always start with good analysis, which in turn depends on a thorough understanding of circumstances and conditions. This deep understanding comes by using proven analytical models, tools that help you consider all possibilities before drawing conclusions. Models can be quantitative or qualitative in nature. Quantitative models use formulas and computations while qualitative ones use observations of behavior or experiences.

Qualitative insights are strongest when backed by solid data. Start your analysis by gathering hard numbers (quantitative data), then use that information to form thoughtful conclusions. Follow the adjective rule: Whenever you use a word like “big,” “small,” or “improved,” try to support it with a number. This takes more effort but makes your argument more convincing. Don’t be afraid to test different approaches—your first idea might not be the best. In real-world situations, teams often need to build their own analysis tools, but in school, you can usually rely on models you’ve already learned.

Subjects that students traditionally study in college (finance, accounting, business analytics, operations management, and so on) are fair game for the use of analysis. Additionally, this textbook has introduced you to many quantitative and qualitative models. Use the following list as a reference and consider whether these will provide a good foundation for your analysis.

Using Artificial Intelligence

AI tools can support your analysis by helping you process large amounts of information, detect patterns, and explore potential scenarios. For example, AI can summarize reports, highlight trends, simulate business outcomes, and surface competitor insights. Use AI to explore ideas, not to make final decisions. When used thoughtfully, it can help you identify strategic issues more efficiently and with greater insight.

AI-generated content can be misleading in several ways. It may produce hallucinations—fabricated information that appears credible—and present it with unwarranted confidence. Misinformation, lack of source transparency, and shallow analysis further complicate trust and depth. Additionally, AI can use overly complex or flowery language (purple prose), offer vague generalizations, or contradict itself, especially on nuanced topics. To use AI effectively, always verify facts, apply critical thinking, and revise for clarity, consistency, and relevance.

AI is a tool—not a shortcut. When used thoughtfully, it can help you uncover strategic issues faster and with greater depth.

1. Verify the output: AI can be wrong or misleading.
2. Think critically: Use your own knowledge and reasoning to assess and refine AI-generated content.
3. Tailor the message: Edit for clarity, accuracy, and audience relevance.

Business-style Reporting

Get your reader’s attention quickly by answering the Big So What?! question early in your report—that is, “What are you writing about and why is it important to your reader?” This requires you to understand your audience. If you are writing for the CEO or board of directors, they’ll be interested in big topics like profitability, competitiveness, outlook, and regulation. But most front-line managers will have little time for such esoteric matters, and they won’t read very far before losing interest.

SBAR

Adapted from the American Society for Quality (ASQ), SBAR stands for Situation, Background, Assessment, and Recommendation (Podgorny & ASQ, n.d.). Its predictable flow and content help professionals share the most important and relevant information quickly without adding unnecessary details that can create noise in the process (Narayan, 2013).

Many organizations use SBAR and provide very specific guidance. In this textbook, we use the SBAR process to provide a concise and organized structure for the delivery of accurate information as commonly used in the business world. As with all models, SBAR is employed to stimulate thinking. Not all points or questions will be relevant in all cases, but you should reflect on all four categories of the model in your communication. Use the model as appropriate and the questions in each section as a starting place only. Your situation will dictate the “right” questions to ask and the “right” models to use for analysis.

Situation

Begin your analysis by explaining the exact circumstances surrounding the company’s situation. Exclude all nonessential information. Once completed, this first step will provide a broad picture of how the company is operating and put you in a position to evaluate the profit potential of its strategy. Thus, you can draw conclusions about past performance and make recommendations for future actions.

By answering some of the following questions, the situation section tells your reader why they should read your report. Importantly, each answer should be accompanied by data and illustrations—that is, avoid reporting observations without tables, charts, graphs, and evidence in support.

• What are the critical incidents that have propelled or hindered the company’s performance?
• Name one or two opportunities or threats that your client’s action (or inaction) created, eliminated, increased, or decreased.
• Considering marketing-, operations-, and finance-related activities, what went well for the company? In what aspects of performance was the company particularly effective in compared to its competitors?
• Considering marketing, operations, and finance activities, what are the biggest opportunities for improvement?
• As a group, how did the executive team make decisions, and what added value or hindered these choices?

Background

The background section presents essential information related to the situation. This information should pertain only to the current situation. This step seeks to describe the company’s strategic context, or the environment within which the company is competing to achieve what it is attempting to accomplish. Understanding the company’s background addresses the question of strategy choice and how well it was implemented. Pick the events with the most influence on the firm’s performance and highlight these.

• What was the firm’s stated and realized business-level strategy?
• What specific steps did you/they take to implement this business-level strategy?
• How well was the business-level strategy implemented? How well did you/they invest key resources?
• What benefits and penalties did this business-level strategy have on overall company performance? In other words, did the strategy hinder or help performance?
• Provide data and illustrations (charts, tables, graphs, evidence) to support your observations.

Sometimes, creating a timeline of the critical events that happened over the past 2–5 years can help you identify unexpected factors and their impact on the company’s current situation (Figure 9.1).

Likewise, a break-even point (BEP) analysis can provide insight into specific operational productivity or marketing issues that highlight competitive strength or stand in the way of success (Investopedia, 2025).

Assessment

In your assessment section, begin with a precise assessment statement based on the situation and background information. This section summarizes your key findings and explains what they mean, using data to support your conclusions and highlight the strategic implications. The assessment must be accompanied by data that are presented in an informative and focused manner. Assume that your reader will look first at your assessment statement (think of this as a thesis statement) and will only look at your accompanying data if it captures their interest. Each of the figure examples (Examples of Assessment Statements) represents a potential data visualization (Figure 9.3). Other possible questions are:

• Did the firm’s decisions reflect the use of market research, industry performance, or comparisons with competitors? What evidence can you point to in support of this observation?
• If the firm’s decisions do not reflect a reaction to the external environment, what seems to be driving their decision making? How can you prove this observation?
• Is there a single business-level strategy that is most effective in this industry or market? What conditions or decisions best support or hinder implementation of such a strategy?

Recommendation

End your SBAR with a recommendation for resolving the issue based on the situation, background, and assessment. If you make good recommendations, you may be a star. Bad ones can label you as someone to ignore. What you recommend is always important; how you recommend matters just as much. This means your analysis must be thorough and your recommendations should clearly flow logically from the observations and data you provide in the report.

Sometimes a recommendation is actually a set of recommendations. In this case, what they have in common is a direct relationship to the issue that has been identified.

Make it an actionable recommendation (Figure 9.2). Make your recommendations specific, measurable, and clearly actionable—answering who does what by when, as well as how and how much. This clarity ensures others can implement your plan even in your absence. Strong recommendations show a direct link between your analysis and the proposed actions, building credibility and guiding decision makers. This same principle—who-does-what-by-when—also helps prevent misunderstandings in team settings by clarifying expectations and accountability (Morris & Zwart, 2018, “Actionable recommendations”).

Cost estimation. When you make a recommendation, expect to answer the question, “How much will this cost?” No business executive “worth their salt” would undertake a plan of action without knowing the cost. Your cost estimate should address the following:

1. Set the Scope: Define what’s included/excluded and explain your choices.
2. List Assumptions: Clearly state assumptions used to estimate costs.
3. Identify Direct Costs: Include variable costs like labor, materials, equipment, and logistics.
4. Identify Indirect Costs: Include fixed overhead like rent, utilities, and licensing.
5. Provide Strategic Alternatives: Plan for different scenarios (e.g., do more, do less).
6. Justify the Recommendation: Use return on investment (ROI), cost-benefit analysis, net present value (NPV), or break-even point (BEP) calculations to support your recommendation.

Communication for Business

All professions have a unique style of writing, and it is the same for business. Medical doctors use complex terms in their vocabulary, and chemists use numerous symbols with language that looks foreign to an outsider. Similarly, business executives have also adopted a distinct set of vocabulary and style of writing to describe and communicate common observations and experiences unique to the world of commerce. Using the correct terminology when interacting with a businessperson helps you to fit in and be more easily accepted; the wrong vocabulary brands you as an outsider or novice.

Case Analysis Framework

In many business courses, students use cases about actual companies to practice analysis and to gain experience in the tasks of crafting and implementing strategy. A case sets forth, in a factual manner, the events and organizational circumstances surrounding a particular managerial situation. It puts readers at the scene of the action and familiarizes them with all the relevant circumstances so they can draw conclusions. The essence of the student’s role in case analysis is to diagnose and size up the situation described in the case and then to recommend appropriate action steps.

In case analysis, the focus is not on finding the right answer; it’s on finding several answers and presenting the one that is best supported by the facts—see Business Analysis.

Workflow for Preparing a Case

1. Skim the case quickly to understand the situation. Get a quick overview to understand the general situation and key issues. Review any study questions provided. If your professor has provided you with study questions for the case, now is the time to read them carefully.
2. Read thoroughly. On a second read, develop a deeper understanding and begin forming tentative answers or your own analysis framework. If your professor has elected not to give you assignment questions, then start forming your own picture of the overall situation being described.
3. Review the exhibits. Examine charts, tables, and figures—these often contain critical insights that shape your diagnosis.
4. Identify the issues. Pinpoint the core problems or decisions the organization faces. Use the provided study questions or generate your own based on your conclusions to guide this.
5. Crunch the numbers. Analyze the financials—ratios, growth rates, margins, cost structures, and similar—to assess performance and trends. See Table 9.1 for a summary of key financial ratios, how they are calculated, and what they show.
6. Apply the concepts and techniques of analysis you have been studying. Use course vocabulary, concepts, and models to interpret the data and uncover strategic insights. Your professor is looking for you to demonstrate that you know how and when to use the material presented in the course.
7. Make judgments about the validity of the data and information provided. Assess the credibility and consistency of the data. Resolve conflicting viewpoints or incomplete information. If you use AI, this step is particularly important. It is up to you to be the human in the AI loop!
8. Support your diagnosis and opinions with logic and evidence. Back up your conclusions with logic, evidence, and calculations. Be ready to answer “Why?” for every claim. If your professor has provided you with specific study questions for the case, answer these and support your diagnosis.
9. Develop an action plan and actionable recommendations. Diagnoses without a corrective action is sterile and meaningless. Propose realistic, well-supported actions that address the issues. Justify why your plan is the best option. See Recommendation in the SBAR section of this chapter for additional information about actionable recommendations.

Table 9.1 Key Financial Ratios

Type	Ratio	Calculation and what it shows
Profitability	1.   Gross profit margin	(Sales – Cost of goods sold) / Sales Shows the percentage of revenues available to cover operating expenses and yields a profit. Higher is better, and the trend should be upward.
	2.   Operating profit margin (or return on sales)	(Sales – Operating expenses) / Sales Shows the profitability of current operations without regard to interest charges and income taxes. Higher is better, and the trend should be upward.
	3.   Net profit margin (or net return on sales)	Profits after taxes / Sales Shows after-tax profits per dollar of sales. Higher is better, and the trend should be upward.
	4.   Return on total assets	Profits after taxes + Interest / Total assets A measure of the return on total investment in the enterprise. Interest is added to after-tax profits to form the numerator since total assets are financed by creditors as well as by stockholders. Higher is better, and the trend should be upward.
	5.   Return on stockholders’ equity	Profits after taxes / Total stockholders’ equity Shows the return stockholders are earning on their investment in the enterprise. A return in the 12%–15% range is “average,” and the trend should be upward.
	6.   Earnings per share	Profits after taxes / Number of shares of common stock outstanding Shows the earnings for each share of common stock outstanding. The trend should be upward, and the bigger the annual percentage gains, the better.
Liquidity	1.   Current ratio	Current assets / Current liabilities Shows a firm’s ability to pay current liabilities using assets that can be converted to cash in the near term. Ratio should be higher than 1.0; ratios of 2.0 or higher are better still.
	2.   Quick ratio (or acid-test ratio)	(Current assets – Inventory) / Current liabilities Shows a firm’s ability to pay current liabilities without relying on the sale of its inventories.
	3.   Working capital	Current assets – Current liabilities Bigger amounts are better because the company has more internal funds available to (1) pay its current liabilities on a timely basis and (2) finance inventory expansion, additional accounts receivable, and a larger base of operations without resorting to borrowing or raising more equity capital.
Leverage	1.   Debt-to-assets ratio	Total debt / Total assets Measures the extent to which borrowed funds have been used to finance the firm’s operations. Low fractions or ratios are better—high fractions indicate overuse of debt and greater risk of bankruptcy.
	2.   Debt-to-equity ratio	Total debt / Total stockholders’ equity Should usually be less than 1.0. High ratios (especially above 1.0) signal excessive debt, lower creditworthiness, and weaker balance sheet strength.
	3.   Long-term debt-to-equity ratio	Long-term debt / Total stockholders’ equity Shows the balance between debt and equity in the firm’s long-term capital structure. Low ratios indicate greater capacity to borrow additional funds if needed.
	4.   Times interest earned (or coverage) ratio	Operating income / Interest expenses Measures the ability to pay annual interest charges. Lenders usually insist on a minimum ratio of 2.0, but ratios above 3.0 signal better creditworthiness.
Activity	1.   Days of inventory	Inventory / (Cost of goods sold ÷ 365) Measures inventory management efficiency. Fewer days of inventory are usually better.
	2.   Inventory turnover	Cost of goods sold / Inventory Measures the number of inventory turns per year. Higher is better.
	3.   Average collection period	Accounts receivable / (Total sales ÷ 365) Indicates the average length of time the firm must wait after making a sale to receive cash payment. A shorter collection time is better.
Others	1.   Dividend yield on common stock	Annual dividends per share / Current market price per share A measure of the return that shareholders receive in the form of dividends. A “typical” dividend yield is 2%–3%. The dividend yield for fast-growth companies is often below 1% (maybe even 0); the dividend yield for slow-growth companies can run 4%–5%.
	2.   Price-earnings (P/E) ratio	Current market price per share / Earnings per share P/E ratios above 20 indicate strong investor confidence in a firm’s outlook and earnings growth; firms with future earnings are at risk or likely to grow slowly and typically have ratios below 12.
	3.   Dividend payout ratio	Annual dividends per share / Earnings per share Indicates the percentage of after-tax profits paid as dividends.
	4.   Internal cash flow	After tax profits + Depreciation A quick and rough estimate of the cash a company’s business is generating after payment of operating expenses, interest, and taxes. Such amounts can be used for dividend payments or funding capital expenditures.

Visualizing Data in Business Reports

Data visualization is the merging of statistics (business analytics) and the science for how to best represent information for communication. In short, this is about telling stories with data. Additional information about data visualization is available in the Data Visualization Techniques of this chapter,

Your data viz should pay attention to the quantity and quality of data that are used; only include data that are relevant to the point you’re making. All other information, no matter how interesting, should be omitted if it is tangential to the main point, see Figure 9.3. Position data viz near where it is used for easy reference and provide it with a descriptive title and a figure number. It’s OK if your title wraps to two or three lines if it makes the purpose of the data viz clearer. Reference your data viz by figure number in the accompanying narrative to make it easy for the reader to see.

Sharpen the Point

Once you’ve answered the three critical questions, sharpen the point. That is, apply the principles of effective research-based data visualization to give your graphic the best impact possible. In Figure 9.3, we might have started with a chart title of “Quarterly Stockouts,” which was the default title given by the spreadsheet software. While this is accurate, it is not informative. Modifying it to sharpen the point calls out the trend the chart’s design was created to highlight.

Giving your data relevance usually requires a referent, a metric that will inform your reader just how big or how small your findings are, see Strategic Issue Identification.

Formatting a Business Report

In business writing, we tend to be informal and use a perspective that matches the circumstances. In academic writing, the tone is more formal, and we are biased toward a distant, third-person perspective as evidenced by the choice of pronouns and a clinical tone. Both academic and business writers emphasize facts, but business writers give opinions, too. Academics use long sentences, but business readers see such writing as stilted and cumbersome. But note, while business writing is less formal than academic writing, it is not conversational. Avoid using slang!

The primary reason for writing is communication, and this does not vary between disciplines. However, there are differences between academic and business writing styles. For more information about creating professional business-style reports see “Writing Essentials” In Morris & Zwart’s Business Style Writing Guide. Table 9.2 provides a useful summary of the key differences.

Table 9.2 Academic and Business Writing Compared (Morris & Zwart, 2018)

Characteristic	Academic writing	Business writing
Purpose	Learning and demonstration of mastery.	Writing actionable items, calls to action, and getting things done.
Appearance	As identified by the professor, typically 1-in. paper margins, a title, and page numbers using paragraph indents, double-space, and 12-point Times New Roman font. Visually, it is uniform and boxy.	Typically, not specified, dictated by subject matter and the firm’s tradition. Single spacing (or maybe 1.15) is common with frequent use of white space and page numbers. Uses titles, headings, and subheadings along with bulleted and numbered lists, graphs, charts, logos, and pictures. Fonts vary, are generally friendly, but are never cartoonish. The effect is visually attractive and pleasing yet the document can be quickly scanned or read more slowly for details.
Audience	Your teacher or professor.	Driven by circumstances and depends on the interests and needs of the specific stakeholders.
Document life	Since an essay or exam is the typical product, its useful life is usually very short. Typically, kept for reference until the end of the term or some institutionally mandated period.	The document is generally just a starting point and can transition into other forms of communication (written documents become oral presentations or formal presentations become informal meetings). Parts of documents may take on a life of their own, being reused multiple times in different contexts by the same and different authors. Some documents may be stored in a firm’s knowledge management repository for reuse or for regulatory or legal reasons.
Citations	Direct quotes and paraphrasing from outside sources must be cited in predetermined academic conventions like Chicago, Modern Language Association (MLA), and American Psychological Association (APA).	Once created, content of reports becomes the firm’s property, and paraphrased, quoted, and boilerplate text is not cited. If outside sources are used, citation varies according to the needs of the audience or client.
Tone	Authoritative, yet inquisitive to show the author has knowledge about their topic and thesis but is open to new learning.	Driven by circumstances and depends on the interests and needs of the specific stakeholders. May be friendly, authoritative, persuasive, or even argumentative.
Voice	Usually passive, especially in science writing. Passive voice prioritizes the experience of an action over the performance of that action.	Always uses an active voice, one in which the subject performs the action stated by the verb. For example, “The CEO (subject) ordered (verb) her team to get in line or get out.” Active voice tends to use fewer words, be more direct, and be easier to understand.

What if I Have to Present?

Just like writing professional reports is a common practice in business, so too are presentations. Writing a report gives you plenty of time to think about what you want to write, allows you to edit for brevity and content, and permits discussion with colleagues about what to leave in and what to take out.

Public speaking, on the other hand, requires extensive planning followed by “throwing out the plan” once the presentation gets underway. Assuming you have already conducted your analysis and identified what you want to say, the following will help you plan the presentation and deliver it optimally.

Creating Effective Slides

When creating slides for a professional, business-style presentation do the following:

1. Your first or second slide should contain an outline of your presentation:
   • The outline slide should contain only the main points.
   • The title of each slide should match your main points.
   • Use the order shown in your outline for the rest of the presentation.
2. Plan for no more than 1–2 slides per minute in your presentation:
   • Include 4–5 points per slide, no more than 6–8 words per line.
   • Include narrative in the speaker notes, not on the slide.
   • Don’t include slides that don’t require narrative.
   • Always include slide numbers—if you must refer to a slide, you can use its number.
   • Write in key point form, not complete sentences. Sentence punctuation rules do not apply, but punctuation should be consistent.
   • Prioritize clarity: Use key words and phrases only; less is more.
3. Use clear, simple fonts:
   • Use at least an 18-point font. Larger is better, but don’t crowd the slide.
   • Use different size fonts for main points and secondary points. Varying by two font sizes adds visible deviation on most presentation software.
   • Use ALL CAPS only when necessary for emphasis. Use boldface or italics instead. Avoid underlining as this often represents hyperlinks.
4. Use color effectively:
   • Use a font color that contrasts sharply with the background.
   • Occasionally use color to emphasize a point. Be consistent from slide to slide.
   • Stick to template color palettes and limit to a maximum of three different colors (excluding shades).
5. Use data visualizations effectively:
   • Data in graphs are easier to comprehend and retain than raw data.
   • Trends are easier to visualize in graph form.
   • Be sure the visuals are legible for the audience.
6. Proofread your slides:
   • Check for spelling, punctuation, and grammar errors.
   • Check for repeated and extra words.
7. Make a strong conclusion:
   • Your audience will most likely remember your last words. Summarize the main points of your presentation.
   • Recommend actions/next steps.

Delivering Presentations

To deliver an effective business-style presentation, begin with a clear introduction that outlines your purpose and topic. Maintain eye contact with your audience—or the camera if presenting remotely—and tailor your message to their needs. Use specific, concrete language and avoid vague statements. Rather than reading from your slides or notes, use slides to highlight key points and expand on them verbally with examples and insights. Know your material well enough to confidently answer questions related to your content.

Speak with clarity and confidence, using a steady pace and natural tone shifts to highlight key ideas. Keep your presentation concise—limit slides and allow time for the audience to absorb your message. Practice, practice, practice. Plan for logical transitions and use data visualizations strategically to support your points. Guide listeners and finish with a persuasive summary that reinforces your main takeaways.

Data Visualization Techniques

Most of the information presented here is adapted from Effective Data Visualization, 2e by Stephanie D. H. Evergreen, PhD (Evergreen, 2020). The charts explored here have been found to be useful for working with data from the Micromatic simulation. They are provided as a guide for creating your own, and the techniques can be useful to people not working with Micromatic.

For Students Not Using Micromatic. While many examples use data from the Micromatic simulation, the core principles of effective data visualization apply broadly. Focus especially on the sections titled The Big So What?!, The Process, and Sharpen the Point. These sections provide universal guidance on choosing the right chart type, crafting meaningful titles, and presenting data clearly—regardless of your data source.

Rules of Data Visualization

Your data visualizations should include the following features:

• Identify the Big So What?!—that is, what is the message the data viz is attempting to convey?
• Position figures near where they are used and include a figure number.
• Figures should have a descriptive title, based on the Big So What?!
• Make the descriptive title and figure number part of the graphic so they stay together.
• Include a referent. Since Micromatic provides Rankings and Award Points for both Current and GTD (Game to Date) quarters, you should use these metrics as comparisons in your analysis to provide perspective and relevance where possible. If you’re not using Micromatic, there is likely some useful yardstick for providing context to your analysis.
• Review the various data viz options below to best match an appropriate type with the purpose of your data visualization.

The Big So What?!

As discussed elsewhere in the chapter within the SBAR framework, this is a very simple test for creating a concise and persuasive descriptive title for your visualization while also keeping it informative. Consider more than just the issue or data at face value. What is your image really trying to convey? This so what question requires you to slow down and think deeply about why you are using the data viz you have chosen to use. Ask if the data viz will add value to your paper. What do you want the reader to take away by looking at the viz?

For example:

1. Descriptive: Number of Advertisement Messages
2. Informative: Company B12 spent more on quality than the industry did on average.
3. The Big So What?!: Company B12 did not forecast demand accurately, having too much or too little finished goods inventory (FGI) in all regions and most quarters, leading to lost sales or unnecessary holding costs.

Notice in line 1 that the title tells you what you’re looking at, the number of ad messages, but not why you’re looking at it. Could such a figure have been left out of the report entirely? (Answer, probably.) Line 2 is informative, it conveys more information about why the figure is in the report, but it still doesn’t tell you why it is important. The data probably could have been just described in the report narrative. Now look at line 3. The Big So What?! tells you what you’re looking for (forecasting errors) and why it is important (the company performed poorly as a result).

The Process

Start your analysis by asking the following three critical questions:

1. Who is your audience and what do they care about?
2. What’s your point?
3. What is the best chart to convey this information?

Once you’ve answered these questions, sharpen the point. That is, apply the principles of effective research-based data visualization to give your graphic the best impact possible. “Sometimes,” says Dr. Evergreen, “all we really need is for people to remember the one important number we calculated because it itself is impactful” (Evergreen, 2020, p. 15). If your data are best illustrated with a single big number, it’s sufficient for this course if you use that number and share how you calculated it.

Chart Formatting Basics

Keep these general principles in mind when creating a graphic for communicating data.

• All graphics (we refer to them as figures) should have a number and a descriptive title. For example, “Figure 1 Both the Value and Count of Emergency Loans Are Increasing Significantly in the Industry” (Figure 9.4).
• Use a legend if it helps to represent the data on the chart. If the legend does not add value, leave it off.
• Axis titles and data labels should be used contextually.
• Make custom charts and only include relevant information. While the quick charts in the Micromatic software are useful for making decisions, don’t rely on these charts when attempting to create a persuasive case to a client.

Accessibility and Branding

In your marketing courses, you work extensively with branding. The use of templates in presentation software and standard color palettes is a specialty in most modern communication departments. When presenting in class, apply what you know about branding. The authors hail from Oregon State University, the home of the Beavers. We therefore make reference to the Beaver color palette. You should take a similar approach—the formatting should be uniform and should focus your audience’s attention, whether in writing or for oral presentations, on the content. Garish, overly colored presentations (more than three colors) convey a nonprofessional appearance and should be avoided.

Not only do branding tools like templates and color palettes add to the professionalism in your reports, but they also address issues of accessibility. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) has driven businesses to adopt visually accessible standards; it was initially issued in 1991 and updated in 2010. Digital content must comply with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 Level AA (U.S. Department of Justice, 2010). Increasingly, college graduates with skills in accessibility standards are more employable.

For visual and digital content, ADA compliance focuses on removing barriers so people with disabilities can perceive, operate, and understand information. A few key elements include (among others):

• Text Alternatives (alt text) – Provide alt text for images and non-text content so screen readers can convey meaning. See Section508.gov’s, Authoring Meaningful Alternative Text.
• Color Contrast and Visual Clarity – Ensure sufficient contrast between text and background; avoid using color alone to convey information. Try this free Color Contrast Checker.
• Clear Structure and Headings – Use proper headings and logical navigation to help assistive technologies interpret content and allow for visual scanning. See this Microsoft Support site for adding heading styles and this Google Docs Help site for adding heading styles.
• Avoiding Visual-Only Cues – Reinforce meaning with text or icons, not just color or imagery (Page One Formula, 2025).

Bar/line Chart

A bar chart best communicates about a single point in time (or points in time). The line chart effectively reflects changes over time. Combining the two can make for a pleasing graphic that shows both.

Figure 9.4 uses data from the Micromatic Instructor Report. See LinkedIn Learning, an online educational platform, for step-by-step instructions. Many universities have a subscription to LinkedIn Learning so be sure to check if your institution has access or try a free trial. Here’s a quick overview of how to create this chart in Google Sheets.

1. Copy and paste data from the Instructor Report into a new tab.
2. Calculate using formulas. This chart uses =countif and =sum.
3. Build your chart. This chart uses Google Sheets > Insert Chart > Combo Chart.
4. Customize the chart using Line type for the Count data and Columns type for the Value data.
5. Add Chart and Axis Titles.
6. Add a Figure number and a descriptive Chart Title.
7. Uses OSU Beaver colors, customized fonts (narrow), font sizes, and data ranges as well as adjusted Data Label positions.
8. The completed chart was downloaded as a PNG file and inserted into this page.

Bubble Chart

Price and quality are two interdependent factors for all Micromatic companies’ products. A useful way to view these is through Product Perception Charts. The site Perceptual Maps 4 Marketing by Geoff Fripp may provide some useful pointers for this process (Fripp, n.d.).

Figure 9.5 shows a single quarter in a single region. However, in analyzing the industry or a specific company, you’d likely want to include all three regions. Again, using data from the Micromatic Instructor Report, we calculated the results for Quarter 8 because it is the most recent data in the data set. However, if you were attempting to explain movement in a specific quarter or region, you’d adjust the data accordingly. In this example, Company 6 is not “participating” in Region 2 during Quarter 8, meaning it had no product available to sell.

To create this chart in Google Sheets:

1. Copy and paste data from the Instructor Report into a new tab. This chart shows price per unit, quality per unit, and market share for Quarter 8 in Region 2, since there is more disparity in this data than in the other two regions.
2. Build your chart. This chart uses Google Sheets > Insert Chart > Bubble Chart.
3. Bring up the Edit Series window.
4. Select the data to use.
5. Format the axes.
6. Add labels.
7. Set the company number to the center of the bubbles.
8. Add a Figure number and a descriptive Chart Title.

Line Charts

As line charts are effective at demonstrating changes in values over time, a pair of lines showing the warehouse expense and profitability of the winning company (Company 3) compared to the industry average would be insightful. However, four lines on a chart can obscure the meaning of that figure. Sometimes, it’s appropriate to split the data into separate charts to allow a discussion of the two separately. The comparison is easier for the reader if the charts are configured so they have the same scale and similar layouts. See the LinkedIn Learning tutorials (e.g., Essentials Creating Charts) for how to add such attributes to your charts.

Using data from the Sample Industry Instructor, Figure 9.6 demonstrates the industry leading Company 3 over the duration of the competition comparing warehouse expense and net income to cost of goods sold (COGS) each quarter. Figure 9.7 provides the same information for the entire industry. Such comparisons can provide meaningful information about what one company did to achieve success. Be sure your comparisons are worthwhile by considering the logic behind how the calculations are made.

To create this chart in Google Sheets:

1. Copy and paste data from the Instructor Report into a new tab. This chart uses Warehouse Expense, Cost of Goods Sold, and Net Income from the Income Statement for Company 3 as well as the quarter-by-quarter information for the entire industry.
2. Build your chart. This chart uses Google Sheets > Insert Chart > Line Chart.
3. Build a separate Line Chart for each series of data, Company and Industry.
4. Format the axes to use a comparable range.
5. Because the slope of lines in the Company chart is shallow, add trend lines to inform the viewer of the direction of each variable.
6. The trends in the Industry chart are obvious, so omit trend lines.
7. Add a Figure number and a descriptive Chart Title.

Dumbbell Plots

This type of graphic connects two or more data points with a line. The line draws attention to the space between the dots. These plots make it easy to see how a gap is growing or shrinking. They are useful for displaying whether goals are met, or as illustrated here, comparisons between two related arrays of data. In this case we are using absolute error in forecasting between the top finishing company (represented with orange dots) and the bottom finishing company (represented with blue dots). Absolute error treats over- and under-forecasting errors the same. That is, if the firm forecasted too many or too few sales, both are errors. Absolute values remove the “+” and “–” signs from the differences between forecast and actual. Here we see that the leading company was consistently better at forecasting than the bottom performing company.

To create this chart in Excel:

Start with a Scatterplot; the setup of your spreadsheet is critical. Use the process described in this Stephanie Evergreen blog post, How to Make Dumbbell Dot Plots in Excel (Evergreen, n.d.-a).

Tables

Sometimes, the best way to display your information is in a table. This is true when your numbers are putting your client’s data in context. Be careful using tables straight from Micromatic, however. These graphics are useful for making quick decisions, but they are not appropriate for a professional business-style report. Always customize the information you are using to illustrate your report. Figure 9.9 is provided to demonstrate how members of the Sample Industry (highlighted in yellow in row 10 at the bottom) lost an average of $127,265 per quarter each. The Figure caption, “It was difficult to earn a profit in the Sample Industry”, states the table’s Big So What?! effectively.

To create this table in Excel or Sheets:

1. Start with the information available from the simulation.
2. Calculate the Sample Industry results appropriately based on the data in the column and rank the industry according to its Avg Qtrly Company Profit (6th) column.
3. Highlight and bold face the relevant data, that of the Sample Industry.

Overlapping Bars

Use this graph to compare one subgroup of information against another. Consider the following narrative as it describes what you are seeing in the accompanying graphic.

An examination of the Sample Industry, Figure 9.10, shows that spending more money in total on feature development will equate to spending less money per feature. Company 6 spent no money on feature development, so this reflects neither spend nor count values. Company 1 spent a total of $100,000 on feature development during the competition and earned nine features in total for a cost per feature of approximately $11,000. Companies 2, 4, and 8 spent the least on feature development — $32,000, $31,600, and $26,500, respectively. Company 5 invested $65,000 to develop five features at $13,000 each.

However, more features do not necessarily translate into better overall performance. Company 3 developed four features and topped the industry, while Company 1 developed nine features—the most of any competitor—yet finished second. Two of the top four finishers developed only a single feature. Last place Company 4 spent $31,600 on a single feature, the highest cost per feature of any company that invested in features. Perhaps they should have saved those resources for other purposes.

The Evergreen Data Blog has a useful narrative on how to create the graphic in Figure 9.10 in Excel. The instructions below roughly follow the Evergreen directions.

1. Calculate the Total Feature Count and the Spend per Feature. Create your data table and sort by GTD Rank for the final quarter. Note, it works best if you arrange the data vertically so that each series (Company, Count, Spend) is in a column. Also, arrange the data upside down; that is so that first place is on the bottom.
2. Highlight the data, click Insert, and choose a 2-D Clustered Bar chart type.
3. Select the Spend per Feature bars in the chart, and right click to Format Data Series. Click the Series Options icon. Leave Primary Axis selected and reduce the Series Overlap to 0%. Set the Gap Width to 50%. Note, you will have to adjust this or the other bar % later to make the overlap look right.
4. Without closing the Format Data Series sidebar, select the Total Feature Count bars and select Plot Series On Secondary Axis. Be sure the Series Overlap is 0%. Change the Gap Width to 200%. Again, this is not exact: adjust the % to make the overlap look right.
5. Modify the font and fill style of the bars as desired and add a figure number and descriptive title (Evergreen, n.d.-b).

Additional Resources

For additional reading, resources, and clever ideas about how to create impactful data visualizations, see the blog by industry leader Dr. Stephanie Evergreen of the Evergreen Data Visualization Academy. This website is packed full of helpful how-to and why-do guides for using data to communicate your message. If you are curious about how to create anything related to data, chances are she has written about it!

LinkedIn Learning provides some top-notch full-length courses and quick video tutorials for creating impactful graphics. Go to LinkedIn and authenticate using your LinkedIn Learning or institution-linked credentials or try a free trial. Search for skills, subjects, or software using the search feature at the top of the page. A good place to start is Browse Data Analysis, Data Visualization, or Spreadsheets. Or search using the following keywords: creating bar charts, line chart, bubble chart, dot plot, spreadsheet, Excel, or Google Sheets. Filter your browsing or search results using content Type (courses, videos, audio, and learning paths) and/or Time to Complete (from < 10 minutes to 3+ hours).

References

Evergreen, S. D. H. (2020). Effective data visualization: The right chart for the right data (2nd ed.). Sage Publications.

Evergreen, S. D. H. (n.d.-a). How to make dumbbell dot plots in Excel. Evergreen Data.

Evergreen, S. D. H. (n.d.-b). My new favorite graph type: Overlapping bars. Evergreen Data.

Fripp, G. (n.d.).   How to make a perceptual map using older versions of Excel. Perceptual Maps 4 Marketing.

Gregg, B., & Libarikian, A. (2021, September 7). Driving radical growth through business-building: Creativity, analytics, and purpose. Fortune.

Haves, A. (2025, December 18). Break-even analysis: What it is, how it works, and formula. Investopedia. Retrieved April 2026

Hick, W. E. (1952). On the rate of gain of information. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 4(1), 11–26.

Morris, J., & Zwart, J. (2018). Business style writing guide. Oregon State University.

Narayan, M. C. (2013). Using SBAR communications in efforts to prevent patient rehospitalizations. Home Healthcare Nurse, 31(9), 504–517.

Page One Formula. (2025, March 31). Ensuring visual content meets ADA compliance.

Podgorny, K. & ASQ Quality Management Division. (n.d.). SBAR (Situation, Background, Assessment, Recommendation). American Society for Quality. Retrieved January 2023

Short, J. C., & Palmer, T. B. (2003). Organizational performance referents: An empirical examination of their content and influences. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 90(2), 209–224.

U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division. (2010). 2010 ADA standards for accessible design. Americans with Disabilities Act.