Working for an outfit that’s changing the way it works and the
technologies it uses, I’ve become hardened if not immune to the sheer
weight of management initiatives doing the rounds.
The pattern is a familiar one. The gurus dream up endless new ways of
stirring the organisational pot. First come the articles, the books and
the seminars. Then, many months later, similar ideas mysteriously
cascade across our desks - usually about as welcome as junk mail
addressed to the previous occupiers.
Former marketing directors who become academics are past masters of this
approach to problem solving. They take one of their campaigns that
worked well in practice, and spend years seeing if it works in
theory.
No wonder most marketers of an essentially practical bent are all
probably suffering from BOHICA syndrome. It stands for Bend Over Here It
Comes Again.
One of the latest fads is something usually dubbed Knowledge
Management.
Yet it could be that this one may just prove more than a fad - essential
even.
As somebody constantly challenged to make sense of ever-larger
quantities of unfiltered business information, it’s apparent to me that
the successful organisation will be the one that doesn’t just have the
knowledge, but can exploit what it knows to the full.
One of the best examples of this is Everest Double Glazing. For some
while now, field staff have used simple custom-designed software which
they take into potential customers’ homes. This allows them to check
every possible part and every dimension, calling up factory data which
is constantly kept up to date.
They can also scan in a picture of the customer’s house, which then
allows every potential window or door to be electronically airbrushed
into place.
It gives Everest a real competitive edge.
When it comes to service companies, I suppose it was the market
researchers which were the pioneers of selling statistical knowledge.
But how good is the information you are paying good money for? Not for
nothing are the best and most up-to-date lists the most expensive.
Raw news and business information is becoming a commodity. The smart
companies will be those able to mine what they know and either sell it
directly or use it to customise their products.
For instance, insurers at Lloyds of London are now drawing on statistics
detailing the intensity and damage caused by every single US tornado
since 1700.
This has helped them improve their returns from underwriting - and all
because of information that was apparently gleaned from a free web site
in the US. Until recently, Lloyds apparently didn’t know it existed -
any more than the people who maintained the list realised the value of
the information they were sitting on.
So send me pounds 250 now for the ideas and examples I couldn’t squeeze
into this column. Then again, they’re probably on the web already - if,
that is, you know where to start looking.
Nigel Cassidy is business correspondent of BBC Radio 4’s Today
Programme.
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