Decision-making - Speed and accuracy of information (1 of 4)
Robin Helweg-Larsen
Published Date
Speed & Accuracy of Information: The Competitive Advantage No One Can Afford to Ignore
I believe that the speed and accuracy of information flow is the greatest competitive advantage a business can have today. Without it, business acumen is meaningless—because even the best decision-making skills are useless if they’re based on bad or outdated data.
Three client stories come to mind:
1. The Medical Products Manufacturer That Didn’t Listen to Sales
A U.S. medical products manufacturer based its Chinese factory production orders on last year’s demand.
By the time planners heard from sales that market innovations had made the old product obsolete, it was too late—container-loads of unsellable product were already on their way across the Pacific.
2. Bell Labs Ignored a Market They Didn’t Understand
In the 1980s, while Bell Labs focused on the coming cell phone revolution, their sales force in China kept telling them about a different need—public pay phones for rural areas.
These phones didn’t need fancy features. They needed to be:
- Sturdy enough to handle -50°F to +120°F (-45°C to +50°C).
- Cheap enough that people only had to walk three miles instead of ten to use one.
Bell Labs ignored the sales team’s input—because it didn’t fit their vision of the future.
3. Hewlett-Packard’s High-Stakes Gamble
In high-tech industries, companies like Hewlett-Packard have to plan today for a product that won’t hit the market for five years.
When making these decisions, they don’t know:
- What they’ll be able to sell it for.
- How large the market will be.
The only certainty? It will cost $10 billion to develop, and there will be an 18-month window to sell it before it becomes obsolete.
The Common Theme: Information Flow Determines Success or Failure
In each of these cases, success required rapid and accurate information flow between departments, markets, and decision-makers.
That’s why we teach this in Income|Outcome—it’s a major experiential component of our Level 4 workshop, Finance & Strategy.
But having access to information isn’t enough.
- How do you ensure you're getting good information?
- How do you make strong decisions—especially when forecasts conflict?
I’ll cover these questions in upcoming posts in this series.
Let us know how we can help your team make better business decisions!
