Today, a business and an entrepreneur cannot be imagined without information. Information is the basis for making quality decisions. However, it was not about any kind of information, it is about quality one. If they are important to an entrepreneur, then the sources will also be important.
When we talk about informations a year ago I complete a survey about business intelligence in 30 small and medium-sized businesses. The results of this research were published in several international scientific journals. Business intelligence is a creator of knowledge for businesses and entrepreneurs. But, the basis of a business intelligence is information.
On the other hand, I worked 3 years in Customs Intelligence Department, where the information was more sensitive. However, there I learned many things because I was trying to simplify and automate the process of collecting and processing the information.
One thing is important and must be remembered from entrepreneurs: informations are one of the most valuable resources of businesses.
Business Information Sources
If we want something to be classified as quality or important we must assess their source. There are many methods that are used about the source assessing, and it’s are systematized processes which after completion will tell us whether or not to take the information as a something serious.
Businesses can use two types of sources:
- Internal source. It is own databases or records, newsletters or reports in the business.
- External source. This is informations from everywhere outside of business.
Especially interesting to me is the external source. In the study that I mentioned in the beginning of this post I find that internal sources are processed somehow from businesses in the form of reports or Excel spreadsheets and graphs. However, what is worrying me is that the concept of a systematic information collecting from outside the business is not established or not knowing how to establish, or it is not knowing from entrepreneurs why they would use that process.
We will take one example. You are an entrepreneur that thinks about expanding the business in other regions in your country. To make a quality and right decisions you need information about:
- Customers. What are their habits, behavior, income, desires, problems, etc…?
- Competitors. What they offer? How they are selling their products and services? What are their future plans?
- Investment. How much money should you invest?
- Return of investment. How and when you can return that investment?
Let’s take another example. You as an entrepreneur should continuously expand your knowledge. Knowledge can be expanded via:
- Reading a book,
- Reading the newspapers and magazines,
- Reading the web page on the Internet and so on.
Older or Relevant Information – What’s Better?
Finally, I come to what is my purpose in this post. Often we reject the adoption of certain information in our brain and that is only because it is old.
For example, we refuse to read a book just because it is older. We reject it, although we are aware that we have not collected all the knowledge (and we cannot) and that book really can have quality information for expanding our knowledge. Do I have to reject the book by Peter Drucker, which is 15 or 20 years old just because it is old? The answer is certainly no. From that book, I can learn a lot about business from one and only business guru all over the world. If you looked in the new books, nearly all will have a reference to some of his works. Should I discard book by Abraham Maslow only because it is old, although in that book he talks about the hierarchy of human needs that are also relevant today?
Age of an information is just the time when it is produced. But, their relevance is simply their application in our today’s life. Both criteria are important in different circumstances of the decision-making process.
Let’s continue with a book as an example. I have 50 books about math in my private library of nearly 400 books. The oldest book is from 1903. What I am surprised is the same relevance as the newest books. In both is stated that 2 + 2 = 4.
If you use both criteria for selection and apply the criterion about age first, immediately should follow the question: Is it relevant?
Relevance should always have priority over the oldness.
Here are more examples:
- As an entrepreneur, you should decide about a new product. You have a database with answers from questionnaires on such a product from the last 10 years. Probably, you will not reject the older data because with them, you can see a trend or pattern of behavior of potential buyers of such a product.
- As an entrepreneur you need to bring a decision, whether to expend your business in Moscow or not. After that you read that Hitler in the 1940′s attacked Russia and come almost to Moscow. Is this data old? Yes, it is old. Is it relevant? No, it’s not. In this case ignore the information because it is not important for what is happening today for your business.
Once again: Always check first whether the information is relevant, or whether it is worth in modern terms before you reject because oldness.
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