The television quiz Jeopardy! reverses the usual order of events. Contestants are given the answer and invited to guess the question. As when the host says “Malcolm Glazer” and the guest responds “The most important man in football today?” This way of thinking is often useful when confronted with economic or business data. The user should ask “What is the question to which this number is the answer?”
Last week the Swiss business school IMD published its annual rankings of national competitiveness. Ironically, there are two competing measures of competitiveness. Originally the IMD prepared an assessment for the World Economic Forum, but now each body produces its own. The rankings are broadly similar the US, Finland and Singapore are highly rated in both but there are also marked differences IMD likes Canada but not the UK while WEF likes the UK but not Canada.
