ABSTRACT
In the real world of business and industry, the output of research should not be just pure knowledge but the use of that knowledge to achieve outcomes. Experience of listening to sound bite news, and observing how some managers take decisions, has led to the conclusion that only a few people have been trained in disciplined robust research. In the early part of the twentieth century, when some of the theories on health and safety were first developed, understanding of statistical good practice was still in its infancy. This lack of understanding of what statistics has to offer is reflected in the syllabi of mainstream teaching of mathematics. Descriptive statistics are generally used for monitoring and trending of known processes. They are generally associated with control and/or assessment of progress. The weekly cycles of media coverage of sport is performance monitoring on a national and an international scale.
