Ebeneezer sat there rubbing his hands with glee as the phone rang off the hook. “Hello, Ebeneezer’s taxis… name, where from, where too?” Rather than chancing their arm, people seemed to like that a taxi would turn up right on time, just for them. He also liked that he got to have minimum exchange with his clientele. He wasn’t much of a sociable character, more a “sit-and-watch-his-bank-balance” kind of guy. The brains behind the operation were, of course, Bob. Bob Cratchit is a humble fellow with the loyalty and pride of a lion. He had the work ethic of a trojan. He’d be up at the crack of dawn and at his laptop, crunching numbers all day.
His laptop, which he had nicknamed Tiny Tim groaned under the strain daily. It was slow and inefficient. Ebeneezer was on an economy drive but as sentimental as Bob was about the times, he’d had with Tim he would gladly move on. Ebeneezer would not be swayed, firmly announcing that there was nothing the matter with it.
Bob tried his very best to track bookings, daily and monthly revenue and so on with quiet frustration, knowing that every time he finished one task the next was due. He spent so much time creating reports rather than doing what he was paid to do: analysing the data. He had a wife who was just about coping with the mayhem at home, juggling her full-time job and their kids; Bob would generally crawl through the door at 9pm or after. His job ensured there was always food on the table, but at what cost?
It was mid-December 2023, and just few days of shopping left before the big day. The phone was busy, and people were desperate to get around the city sorting their last-minute Christmas preparations. Ebenezer was determined to make as much money as he could! “The season of goodwill? More like the season of good banking!” he would say to any who would listen. His old business rival and the closest thing to a friend you could have in the Taxi business was Jacob, the owner of Marley Cabs. Something was wrong and he had asked Ebenezer to meet him for lunch. Now it was lunchtime, and that blasted Bob had gone to buy a present for his wife! How dare he!
As soon as Bob came back into the office, Ebenezer cornered him. “I needed to go and meet my good friend Marley! You’re a failure, Bob. I should fire you for being so incompetent.” With that, Ebenezer stormed out and went for his lunch with Jacob Marley; he needed something indulgent to calm himself down.
Bob was upset; he and Tim were doing the best they could, and he could use the data they had to show what had happened. After all, that’s all you can report on. Bob was an expert with Excel, but it all took so long that he didn’t have any time to try and innovate. He didn’t know what more he could do. He knew Ebeneezer’s Taxis were in trouble, but what could he do? Marley had said he should use AI to solve his problems!
Ebenezer returned around 2pm, and feeling full, he went to his office, avoiding eye contact with Bob. He sat down heavily, Jacob had told him that he was going out of business. What should have been a moment of triumph for Ebenezer felt tarnished. His business was struggling as well and he didn’t want to repeat Marley’s mistakes, but what could he do? As he wondered his eyes started to become heavy, and sleep became irresistible… he started to dream. “Ebenezer Scrooge?” he heard, “I am the ghost of Data past and I want to show you the data of the past. He froze, now that was something that Marley had predicted…. Remember how much easier it was when all you needed to do was add up columns of numbers? Descriptive reporting is the basis of all reporting. Understanding your past is the only way to move forward.” Ebenezer grunted and turned over. “But last year we made $190k across December, will we do the same this year? How did Marley go under? Data never used to be this difficult.”
#geordielife #dataanalysismistakes #adatatale #ebeneezerscrooge
