COLLEGE ON A CURVE
The familiar A through F grading system seems to have been invented at Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts in 1884. By the 1940s, this system had been mapped to corresponding percentages and was the dominant form of grading used in most U.S. educational institutions. The scale was centered around 70% as an average level of acceptable performance, granting a letter grade of C. Anything below that was considered unsatisfactory, and anything above that was considered superior. Work that was in the top 10% of all students was deemed excellent, and awarded an A. This empirical gauge, originally conceived as a standard bell curve with most students in the middle, held true through the first half of the 20th century. But something changed around 1960.
THE OLYMPICS BANKRUPTCY MACHINE
In 1970, Denver, Colorado, was awarded the 1976 Winter Olympics. Everyone felt the location would be ideal to celebrate both America's bicentennial and Colorado's centennial. Despite the fact that the previous Winter Olympics had cost over $1 billion to produce, Denver boasted that they could do it for $14 million. But the citizens of Denver disagreed, and after two years of protests and pushback, Denver became the first, and only, city to rescind their bid to host the Olympics. The move forced the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to scramble for a new host, and in three months, the group chose Innsbruck, Austria, the Winter Olympics host twelve years earlier. The 1976 Games ended up costing over $100 million, more than seven times Denver's original estimate. Montreal's Summer Games that same year came with a $6 billion price tag and a $1.5 billion loss, bankrupting the city and saddling its citizens with 30 years of debt. Denver and Montreal sparked a discussion that continues to this day. Is it ever worth it for any city to host a megaevent like the Olympics, and if not, why do we keep doing it?
UNTYING THE DATA FROM THE KNOT
The Knot is the number one wedding network in the United States with over 11 million monthly visitors, and reaches 8 out of 10 brides. In 2022, the company surveyed 12,000 of its users to provide its annual wedding statistics. Among dozens of data points, that survey reported that couples in America spent an average of $5800 on engagement rings. As the wedding authority, this statistic from The Knot is cited by numerous media outlets, including Vogue and American Express. There's just one problem: that figure isn't true. That same year, Today's Wedding Jewelry Consumer, an independent market research firm dedicated to the wedding jewelry industry, released the actual purchasing data for engagement rings, and it was significantly less: $3670. The fact that The Knot's figure is so far off and gets cited far more often reveals a lot about us as a culture and the wedding industry as a business.
KODAK'S WILD RIDE
The Eastman Kodak Company was officially formed in 1901, right after the company invented the first inexpensive, portable, personal camera. By 1992, Kodak was a $20 billion company, and the 18th largest business by revenue in the United States. Twenty years later, the company filed for bankruptcy. Kodak's story has become a classic, cautionary tale about a business that developed tunnel vision, refused to diversify, and actively fought technological developments. It's an overly simplified story that is easier for us to understand and repeat, but the actual data tells a different story.
THE DATA BEHIND THE BUSINESS
Data not only provides a more accurate view of things; it can also tell better stories. In a world of catchphrases and memes, we'd all like a more researched and robust picture of the business world. What factors were most significant for the meteoric rise and fall of certain companies, and was their trajectory truly meteoric? How true are the organizational narratives we've all been conditioned to believe? Were the most celebrated advertising campaigns actually as successful as everyone thinks they were? Every month in The Data Behind the Business, we'll look at hard numbers and statistics to get a better understanding of how industries are actually shaped. The truth will surprise you, and may also change the way you look at your own business.
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