The Growth Illusion

Imagine a business boasting “200% growth in customers!” Sounds incredible. Until you realize they went from 1 customer to 3. Technically true? Yes. But a game changer? Not exactly.

Percentages can be misleading when the numbers involved are minute and any fluctuation leads to huge deviances. A company growing from 1 million to 1.1 million only sees a 10% increase, but that’s 100,000 new customers, a much bigger deal in reality.

So next time someone throws out a massive percentage, ask them: “200% of what?” Because in data, as in life, the starting point makes all the difference.