With information comes light.

I heard a senior executive from Facebook say this recently and it has stuck with me. Taking this saying and stretching it to its limits was an interesting exercise (sad I know, but my excuse is that I was stuck on a packed commuter train heading home from London).

If information brings light
then
knowledge must be an open door with the light shining through and the conviction to walk towards it
leading to
understanding as one recognises the source of the light.

To run a business we must have information but, to take informed decisions, we need to turn it into knowledge and act on that knowledge. Only after acting do we stand a chance of understanding.

Decision Making

How many decisions do we take in our business life? Many are taken without thought, as part of our daily workload. Some demand more attention and have a greater impact. There are only two outcomes to the decision making process - 'do something' or 'do nothing'. When I say 'do nothing' I include 'get more research', procrastinate and all the other things that result in no action being taken.

How any businesses consistently monitor the results of 'do something' decisions? The best businesses always measure outcomes and adjust decisions accordingly.

When it comes to 'do nothing' decisions, very few businesses consider the outcome. However, how can we as business people improve our decision making process if we don't do this? If we decide to not invest in a new server, we should measure what that decision is costing us (or not costing us). If a decision is taken to not invest in an ageing product then we must recognise that a drop in sales is possibly the reaction to that decision.

For the last couple of years it's been easy to take 'do nothing' decisions but if we were wrong then the consequences will show up sooner or later. Isn't it better to monitor the results of all high impact decisions (both 'do something' and 'do nothing') so that we can adjust our actions quickly?

I like the idea that there are no wrong decisions, only right decisions that are not reversed quick enough.

Apples & pears

There has been a long running discussion on LinkedIn about the merits of two CRM systems. It all started with a very fair question asking for a comparison between Microsoft CRM and Sage ACT! However, from many points of view they are incomparable - particularly in functionality, complexity, cost & technology used. The debate has rolled on for a couple of weeks with answers getting technical, heated and to be honest occasionally irrelevant. There have been several people arguing that they need to consider their requirements first. I wonder if the questioner regrets asking!

When an organisation is in the early stages of looking for a system there needs to be two parallel strands

1. basic product research; and
2. requirements definition

Basic product research must happen to allow the organisation to become familiar with the market place to answer questions like

• who are the providers
• what can the systems do
• basic costs.

After all there is no point in doing any more research if what you want can not be done. Also, when meetings are arranged with potential suppliers the organisation will be speaking from a position of knowledge.

Requirements definition is needed to properly understand what the organisation needs. There should be a 'must have' list and a 'wish' list of requirements but it is important to make sure that the wish list doesn't take precedence.

The next stage is how to choose the potential providers....