Has anyone ever wanted to pay you for the wrong answer?

The business world is unforgiving about getting it right

Ronald J. Bourque

Although I already had two semesters of statistics in college as a sophomore, I was required to take managerial statistics as a senior. The teacher was Japanese, Professor Kobayashi. He seemed like an amiable guy and was giving us valuable advice that we’d be able to use on our jobs the next year.

The course would have four one-hour exams and a final. As the first hour exam approached, our teacher explained the rules. The exam would be open book, in case we had to look something up. He didn’t care if we copied from our neighbors because we each would have a different data set. Copying would guarantee a wrong answer, and the right answer was important.

The day came, and we took the exam.

Most of us thought we had done well. We were in shock at the next class when he gave us the results. I think I got a 9 out of 100, and I was one of the high scorers.

Each problem was worth 25 points.

Most teachers would give 20 points or more for using the right method, and a full score for the right answer. Professor Kobayashi explained that he gave only two or three points for the right analysis and 22 or 23 points for the right answer.

“Gentlemen, you guys are seniors! Next year you’ll hopefully be working in nice, high-paying jobs. Try telling your boss you used the right analysis when you give him or her a wrong answer. Wrong answers can get you fired, and it’s about time you learn that.”

Everybody was livid. We were seniors, and this would ruin our cumulative.

Kobayashi went on to explain that he was a reasonable man and would drop our lowest hour-exam score. In other words, only the next three would count, so we better have learned the lesson, as there would be no mercy going forward.

I wasn’t upset like the others. In college, I went to school full time during the day and held a full-time professional job at night. It wasn’t fun. I even went to summer school to take some of the winter load, so I could at least go to bed at night. I already knew my bosses didn’t want any wrong answers; they only wanted right answers.

Kobayashi was teaching us a valuable lesson. I wondered why more teachers weren’t scoring that way.

Well, I couldn’t afford to lose any more points, and although I had the best quality slide rule and used it carefully, our professor seemed to be asking for a level of precision beyond what a slide rule could deliver.

Texas Instruments had just come out with an electronic calculator that actually did square roots, a necessary calculation for standard deviations. The cost was about $150, an awful lot of money back then, but I got the money together and bought one. Thankfully, I had no more answers off by just a little bit. I used that thing on the job for several years until they came out with even more sophisticated scientific calculators. It was a good investment.

What I can’t understand is why so many schools have eased their requirements. They talk about grade inflation where the work that used to get you a C can get you an A. The students have difficulty earning real As, and the teachers look bad if they grade too harshly.

Unfortunately, they’re not doing those students any favors. The business world is harsh and unforgiving. I’ve never found a boss or a client that wants wrong answers. So many young hires are cavalier about getting the right answer. In a lot of applications, close just isn’t good enough.

Some people have to get fired several times before they figure this out. Unfortunately, by then, they often have too many bad habits and not enough discipline to struggle to get the right answer.

Admittedly, many of the calculations are now done by computers, but we should still do the calculations by hand to at least approximate the answer. Pressing one wrong button gives us a wrong answer, and if we have no feel for where the answer should be, that pink slip could be our first indication.

It’s too bad we can’t put Kobayashi in every school, not just colleges, but elementary and secondary schools as well.

Ronald J. Bourque, a consultant and speaker from Salem, has had engagements throughout the United States, Europe and Asia. He can be reached at 603-898-1871 or RonBourque3@gmail.com.