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Thursday, June 10, 2004
Ng: Knowing real score
By Wilson Ng
Wired Desktop
LATEST INFO. For over 10 years now, I have been selling business software solutions to hundreds of companies.
One of the reasons businesses should consider computerizing, for instance, their accounting, inventory, receivables, payroll or fixed assets is not only to make their business processes more efficient, but to have a management information system. It gives you the latest information on how your business is doing, and what you should do to improve it.
A management information system correctly deployed and installed will give you an accurate idea what is happening to your business much the way a dashboard will tell you how a car is doing.
The dashboard gives information on fuel, how fast you are going, how far you have traveled, the temperature of your car, and if the doors are closed.
A correctly deployed solution, therefore, increases both efficiency and effectiveness, as well as gives you the update at all times.
I have always assumed that the business owner or manager would want all this information on hand in order to manage effectively, but do they?
CADILLAC. I read a recent article (written by Mac Demere on a MotorTrend magazine entitled, “Little White Lies from your Dashboard”) that the Cadillac improved the accuracy of its gas gauge during the mid-’90s. You would think that consumers would be happy, but in fact, they were not.
They were used to previous models where the gas gauge stayed on full for a long period of time, and the driver would have to drive for a long period of time before suddenly the gauge would move towards half tank.
The new more accurate gauge indicated that the tank was less than full, giving the perception that the new car was getting very poor gas mileage when in fact, it was more fuel efficient.
The other thing they found out was that drivers were used to having the gauge read “empty” long before it ran out of gas. So they were used to taking a long time to refill even when the gauge already was indicating empty.
The new more accurate gauge really means empty when it is, creating some trouble with consumers actually running out of gas. It is rumored that some car makers change the calibration of the gas gauge to meet these customer expectations.
In this case, it was better to be delusive than accurate? These calibrations allow the customer to believe his car has really great gas mileage.
Do people really want to know exactly how well or badly their business is doing? Maybe there will always be people who believe they don’t have to know the true score because a rough estimate is good enough. Which type are you?
(e-mail: wilson@esprint.com.)
(June 10, 2004 issue)
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