As old as the hills
Archaeologists tell us that some of the first examples of written language are from ancient Sumeria, where traders devised writing systems for tracking their accounts. More recently, it has been argued that one of the most significant (yet underrated) intellectual advances of our modern era has been the adoption of ‘generally accepted accounting principles’ (e.g., GAAP). Having common approaches to accounting means people can compare financial performance across almost any industry, making accounting a universal language of business.
By extension, accounting methodology has helped the birth of our modern form of globalization and, without it, we probably wouldn’t have international education!
As a result, business success, essentially, comes down to numbers. The ultimate success of a business is its profitability, or in accounting terms, the ‘bottom line’.
The measure of business
In order to monitor performance of the various activities that affect bottom line results, organizations incorporate performance metrics (e.g., the percentage of market share, changes in costs, etc.) into their management. These metrics become de facto report cards for employees, and they are often linked to SMART performance targets (and, as a reminder, the ‘M’ stands for measurable). I doubt I am telling you anything you don’t already know, but it is important to acknowledge how businesses are generally managed, because if you are an educator working with (or reporting to) business people, you should assume they will expect to use metrics to track performance. And ro speak ‘their’ language.