My answer would be that reports provide a static representation of business operations. In order to improve business processes one has to have a report to view the outcome of the current processes, advise on areas for improvement, implement the change, then over time create another report to see the outcome of the change. Then compare the previous outcome to the new outcome to see if a positive change has occurred, tweaking the processes as needed to provide the most optimal, and efficient quality business processes that will assist with maximizing profit.