Reporting tells you what happened in the past. It also provides a baseline from which to observe changes and trends. It can be interesting and can keep some investors and shareholders happy, but it is a fundamentally backward view of the world. To be data-driven, you have to go beyond that. To be forward-looking and engage in analysis, dig in, and find out why the numbers are changing and, where appropriate, make testable predictions or run experiments to gather more data that will shed light on why.
