What does the emphasis on quantitative analysis mean for top managers?
Gerhart: The first thing I think about is Sarbannes-Oxley and the pressure on CEOs to know more about their financial numbers because they are more liable than they used to be. Now they have to sign off personally. Arora: When you deal with multiple brands, multiple categories, you need to know what’s doing well and what isn’t doing well. You need to be able to track growth trends. There’s an increasing need for that analytical mindset. CEOs need to be able to digest report numbers in a meaningful way. That’s what I try to emphasize to our students: You may not want to be a person who does quantitative stuff on a day-to-day basis, but you need to be very comfortable with being analytical. You have to be able to read spreadsheets; it’s a toolkit you must have in your back pocket to be effective. Caggiano: Not only that, CEOs need to be able to look at data in a spreadsheet and see that it’s telling you a story. One of the skills our MBA students need to have is not just being able to lo
