Chapter 1

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Introduction

Statistics for Management, 7e Authors: Sanjay Rastogi and Masood H. Siddiqui

 Who Uses Statistics Anyhow?

• “Statistics are like a bikini. What they reveals is suggestive,

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but what they conceal is vital”
Aaron Lovenstein

• The word statistics means different things to different people.

• To a football fan, statistics are rushing, passing and first down

numbers. To FDA, statistics is the likelihood of undesirable
effects in the general population using the new prostate drug
etc.
• Each of these people using statistics correctly, yet each person
uses it in a different way.

Statistics for Management, 7e Authors: Sanjay Rastogi and Masood H. Siddiqui

 History

• The word statistik comes from Italian word statistia which

Copyright © 2013 Dorling Kindersley (India) Pvt. Ltd.

means "statesman".

• First used by Gottfried Achenwall (1719–72).

• Long before the 18th century, people had been recording and
using data.

• Official government statistics are as old as recorded history.

• The old testaments contain several accounts of census taking.

Statistics for Management, 7e Authors: Sanjay Rastogi and Masood H. Siddiqui

 Subdivisions Within Statistics

• Statistical techniques can be commonly separated into two

Copyright © 2013 Dorling Kindersley (India) Pvt. Ltd.

broad categories:
Descriptive statistics
Inferential statistics.

• Graphs, tables and charts that display data so that they are
easier to understand are examples of descriptive statistics.

• The process of estimation of any parameter is referred as

statistical inference.

• The method and techniques of statistical inference can be

used in decision theory, making decisions under conditions of
uncertainty.
Statistics for Management, 7e Authors: Sanjay Rastogi and Masood H. Siddiqui