A lot of management consulting is exactly that - the answer is simple when you look at it this way, but they need to back it up. That's why they quantify it and

A lot of management consulting is exactly that - the answer is simple when you look at it this way, but they need to back it up. That's why they quantify it and don't just say "fix it". They studies thousands of companies to come up with the above - you could make it up on the spot but that study gives them way more credence. It's like when science is done on something we consider obvious - it's still valuable to have the data. THey also guide on examples of what sorts of things to look into. Most companies have serious noise to signal ratios with their data - this tells people what data to actually look at.