This month, McKinsey Quarterly published eight technology-enabled trends they feel will help shape businesses and the economy. Trend seven is near and dear to my heart – or should I say head? Putting more science into management falls under the heading of leveraging information in new ways. The authors explore some of analytical topics that are all the buzz in recent best sellers: “ideagoras”, customer segmentation, experimentation, prediction markets and recommendation engines.
Leaders should get out ahead of this trend to ensure that information makes organizations more rather than less effective. Information is often power; broadening access and increasing transparency will inevitably influence organizational politics and power structures. Environments that celebrate making choices on a factual basis must beware of analysis paralysis.
The close by suggesting the following books:
- Thomas H. Davenport and Jeanne G. Harris, Competing on Analytics: The New Science of Winning, Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 2007. (see my entry on wikiBookNotes.org)
- John Riedl and Joseph Konstan with Eric Vrooman, Word of Mouse: The Marketing Power of Collaborative Filtering, New York: Warner Books, 2002.
- Stefan H. Thomke, Experimentation Matters: Unlocking the Potential of New Technologies for Innovation, Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 2003.
- David Weinberger, Everything Is Miscellaneous: The Power of the New Digital Disorder, New York: Times Books, 2007.
I’ve only read the first. I’m interested in any reviews of the others.
