The Hindu Business Line : Technology control is about compliance, not commitment

Perfect control is possible if we have perfect information to make perfect decisions. A perfect statement, that may be; but the problem is that perfection for management never has existed and never will. Thus says Jo Owen in Hard-core Management from Kogan Page (www.vivagroupindia.com) .

"Our information is normally incomplete, inaccurate and out of date by the time we receive it. The solution, therefore, is not to look for perfect information, but to learn the how of living with imperfection.

"The search for perfect knowledge and control is ultimately self-destructive. Even with the advances in technology, the marginal costs and gains from extra information soon lead to more information becoming uneconomic."

A vicious swirl can suck you in, watch out. Because, with more information will come the "demand for reviewing, analysing, challenging, checking, and dealing with the information." As a result, people in the organisation may end up "arguing about the information instead of dealing with the business."

IT (information technology) is giving the management `performance and control information' that Stalin and KGB could only have dreamt about, quips Owen.

"The trap that businesses fall into is that, because it is technically possible to gain more control information, they believe they should gather more information. Quantity of information replaces quality and becomes a substitute for management judgment."

The less, the better, may hold true in the case of information. For, "it is much harder to hide, confuse and fudge the issue when there is focus on just a few numbers and a few issues." Gigabytes of data and doorstopper-reports `lack the courage and discipline to focus on what is important,' says Owen.

Information can be used in one of the three ways, he writes.

The first is `to provide insight and answers to problems.' Yet, sadly, `this is the least common way of using information in a business'. The second use is `to support a point of view'. And the third use is `to raise more questions'.

Owen points out that businesses don't use information the way a scientist does, that is, to test and refine a hypothesis. Rather, they go about information like lawyers do in a court.

"One manager will use the information to support a proposal or a new budget or a new marketing campaign.

All the facts and figures will be carefully marshalled in support of the point of view." But this will meet with a major hurdle in the form of the senior manager, who would use the information "as the starting point for the cross-examination". Distressingly, "the cost of processing information rises geometrically."

Do you know why the Roman Empire lasted hundreds of years longer than most business empires? Because it was based `not on endless reporting but on trust and ability,' reasons Owen.

"When governors were sent out to far-off places like Britannia or Judaea, they did not expect to have to report back every day on the state of the economy or security and then ask for directions. They were expected to go out, govern effectively and keep the empire together."

That's not a luxury the modern executive enjoys. "Call centre staff have every call monitored, and bond dealers have trade monitored in real time. Staff have e-mails recorded, and every Web page they visit can be filtered, blocked and recorded."

Technology control is about compliance, not commitment, distinguishes Owen.

Technology addresses the symptom of problems, not the cause, he says. "The symptom is staff wasting their time on the Internet. So we put in more controls to stop computer abuse. The cause of staff wasting time is that they have no commitment to a business that clearly does not trust them."

The solution, therefore, lies in better management, not in better technology, declares the author.

Full of lessons that they don't teach in B-schools!

The wireless sports journalist

In the rush to keep up with `the rolling 24- hour sports news digital channels' here can be aberrations too.

Raymond Boyle's Sports Journalism: Context and Issues from Sage (www.sagepublications.com) is about "the challenges and skills involved in the craft of sports-writing across the print, broadcast and online media organisations."

The book has well-written chapters on print media tradition, broadcasting, 24/7 media, promotional age and gender, all in the context of sports journalism. The chapter on `the digital age' begins with a quote of Andrew Thompson, Head of BBC Sports News - that the heart of sports journalism is going to be `on the Web'.

There is no shortage of sports-related content on the Internet, notes Boyle. Since official sites of sports teams attract exclusive content, these are `the first port of call for journalists looking for direct quotes from a player, manager, or athlete."

Despite the explosion of material on the Web, there has been reinforcing of `already existing media brands,' says the author. "In 2005, sports pieces were invariably among the top downloaded stories from the Web sites associated with The Guardian, The Times, and The Daily Telegraph." The book cites research by Aura Sports - "that 79 per cent of sports see their official club Web site as the most important source of news, with 61 per cent stating that national newspapers are their prime source." Evidence, says Boyle, that "the print media sports sector has not been decimated by the rise of the Internet as a source of sports journalism."

The digital age helps achieve the astonishing pace at which sports news stories are circulated across media platforms. For instance, Thomson explains how the multi-platform authoring system allows people to write the story once and then send it across to a range of platforms, from Ceefax, the Web, and mobile texts.

"Many will use their Web site to carry an initial story, with a view to driving readers to the more in-depth print version which may appear the following day," explains Boyle. He gives the example of The Times, through this quote of David Chappell: "We track our Internet readers and on any given day sports stories are among the top ten read stories online. And sport is consistently one of the areas that get among the biggest hits to the Web. It allows editorial executives to see the importance of sports in The Times, which is helpful for us in terms of resources. We have also put stories online before they have gone into the paper."

In the rush to keep up with `the rolling 24-hour sports news digital channels' there can be aberrations too. An example that the author gives is of a national tabloid newspaper that carried football stories `that originated directly from a fan Web site', without giving reference to the original source.

The stories were `completely unfounded' but that didn't prevent other media outlets from picking up and carrying the tabloid's stories.

There are many pluses, though. "The new technology has helped, making people think about the quality of the words, rather than simply banging them into the paper in quite the same way," reads a quote of Richard Williams, in a section titled `the wireless sports journalist'. The writers and the sub-editor have greater control, adds Williams. "And there is no printer intervention, which makes it easier to write reflectively under pressure."

Tailpiece

"I use two different mobiles, one for each purpose."

"Personal and official?"

"No, voice and SMS."

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