What is the best stategy to use to communicate data effectively in business reports?

Answer 1

Well, first spell correctly. That would be "strategy."

Second, if you are referring specifically to "data" (i.e., numerical information), the use of charts and graphs can often convey this information much more succinctly than a lot of words.

Finally, if you are referring to "information" and used the word "data," then choosing the most accurate words for your ideas is critical. Be brief, concise and precise. Business people don't have a lot of time to wade through a lot of verbage to get to a point. Write to clarify, not to impress.

Answer 2

This is half-science and half-art.

The science half requires you to understand the data, what it means, and the audience. This will allow you to test whether a particular representation of the data will be recieved, and interpreted by the audience. Understand the data. Understand how to properly handle it so its not hurt by your work. Know it well enough that you can describe it in words at least two different ways, and you can describe it with a graph, or a flowchart pretty easily.

The art half is where you try different creative representations. There are 5 ways to represent a mathematical idea that the data comprises: numbers(table), symbols(equation), pictures(graph), flowchart, and words. Some graphs have been well understood and are suggested for representing different types of data.

A polar or radar graph allows you to compare different datasets of the same size.
A scatter graph allows you to display time series data.
Bar and Collum graphs show data that is classified into groups.

You might explore pivot tables in excel, because they are very powerful multidimensional table-generating tools.

Visio, simulink, labview or even Lanflow to generate flowcharts showing sequence, dependencies, or decisions in a process.

If you know the equation, you can represent it in Maple, Mathematica, Microsoft Equation Editor, or TeX. If you need to determine the relationship then excel, or graphical analysis are relatively easy to learn/ easy to use tools. MatLab, Maple, or Mathematica are harder to learn, much more powerful tools.

The vision that I have found most useful in communicating data effectively is a minimalist approach. Remove everything that makes the data harder to understand or interpret. Convey the idea as simply and completely as possible.

The human mind is a great filter, and when you start adding material, or the data is buried, its easy for the human mind to reject the data with the fluff, and miss the point. Display the data S.M.A.R.T.-ly.
S - specific
M - measurable
A - actionable
R - relevant
T - timely

Make sure you have those done well in your presentation of data.

There are some advanced mathematical idea including convolution or deconvolution that are VERY useful, and are key is current "control system engineering" for understanding the fundamental nature of a system of interest. Ogata has a great book on the subject. He is the father of the field.

Log-log and semilog plots can also be very valuable when representing data, but you have to understand what you are doing.

Answer 3

Visuals like charts and graphs. Be sure it is not too cramped but is visually appealing. If you are doing Powerpoint, make the chart/graph a slide of its own and use it as a visual aide. Re-cap points in your conclusion. People retain this type of information better when presented visually.