The Hindu Business Line : Search engines as publishers

The conflict between making something ‘freely available’ and doing so in a way that makes it ‘free of cost’ to the user remains an issue, observes Richard Balkwill in one of the essays included by S. K. Ghai in Intellectual Property: Issues in the publishing industry ( www.fiponweb.com).

Search engines that act as publishers add to the problem, the author opines. “The motives of Google and Amazon may seem to be ‘discovery’ on behalf of the reader or buyer of a printed version of a book, for example, and both organisations stress that they are making parts of works available in order to stimulate interest in buying the whole version.”

Balkwill cautions, however, that Google Library, which is scanning and preserving out of copyright works, is aiming clearly to move on to ‘out of print’ works, and eventually to a far larger repertoire.

“A number of legal cases are pending that bring into question the motivation of Google: are they providing a public service that directs and refers users to copyright works, or are they supplying those works (or enough of them for most uses) direct to the user, and thus excluding or marginalising the rights of the rights owner or the legitimate role of the publisher?”

Important read.

Learning from doing

There is a great scope for learning from experience — the problems, challenges, and successes inherent in day-to-day activities — and such learning can be enhanced, says Michael Armstrong in Performance Management: Key strategies and practical guidelines, third edition ( www.vivagroupindia.com).

“The premise is that every task individuals undertake presents them with a learning opportunity, as long as they reflect on what they have done and how they have done it and draw conclusions for their future behaviour if they have to carry out a similar task,” Armstrong explains.

As example, he cites the case of a team that has the task of developing and implementing a new computerised system for responding to customer account queries.

The team would start by jointly assessing with the project leader the terms of reference, the project schedule, the budget and the results expected to be delivered.

The team would then analyse progress and at periodical ‘milestone’ meetings would review what has or has not been achieved, discuss the lessons learnt and decide on actions to be taken and modifications to be made.

Learning is an implicit part of reviews, the author says. The team will be deciding on any changes it should make to its method of operation, and learning can be defined as the modification of behaviour through experience, he reasons.

“Continuous learning can take place even less formally, as when a team leader in an accounts department instructs an accounts assistant on her role in analysing management information from the final assembly department as part of a newly introduced activity-based costing system,” adds Armstrong.

Recommended addition to the manager’s shelf.

Let bad news reach the CEO fast

A book that evoked much interest when launched almost a decade ago was Business @ the Speed of Thought by Bill Gates ( www.penguin.com).

And it continues to retain value in its newer presentations, for the many keen insights woven into the narrative on how to succeed in the digital economy.

Such as how an essential quality of a good manager is a determination to deal with any kind of bad news head on, to seek it out rather than deny it, as Gates says in one chapter.

“An effective manager wants to hear about what’s going wrong before he or she hears about what’s going right. You can’t react appropriately to disappointing news in any situation if it doesn’t reach you soon enough.”

According to Gates, an important measure of a company’s digital nervous system is how quickly people in the company find out about bad news and respond to it. “Digital technology speeds corporate reflexes in any emergency,” he declares.

A good e-mail system ensures that bad news can travel fast, but your people have to be willing to send you the news, Gates advises.

“Sometimes I think my most important job as a CEO is to listen for bad news. If you don’t act on it, your people will eventually stop bringing bad news to your attention. And that’s the beginning of the end.”

Of endless value.

Net research

Since the Internet is new, do old theory and methods about research have anything to offer? Exploring this question, Nancy K. Baym finds the need to be grounded in existing literatures, theories and methods, even when a research topic involves the Internet.

“Analysts learn the most and are most persuasive when they are able to make their contribution clear by articulating the connections between what they have found and what we already know,” she avers, in one of the essays included in Internet Inquiry: Conversations about method co-edited with Annette N. Markham ( www.sagepublications.com).

A simple lesson that the author reminds the researchers of is focus.

“We must limit our attentions to a domain small enough that we can examine it with some degree of thoroughness,” she insists.

Another rule Baym lays down is, ‘Be practical.’ The Internet may make near-infinite piles of data available, and many paths may lead to fruitful and fascinating interpretations, but we have to make choices or we will never get past data collection, she counsels.

Prescribed study for the avid researcher.

Growing force multiplier

How does IT help in productivity? By enabling employees to acquire and retain satisfied customers, and also by enabling an increase in the production of goods and services for better revenues at improved margins, say Martha Young and Michael Jude in iExec Enterprise Essentials Companion Guide ( www.ciscopress.com).

Each of these activities, prior to the Internet, had a force multiplier of 1, the authors narrate.

“That is, one employee could only do what one employee was capable of accomplishing with his own knowledge and resources. With Internet-enabled IT, force multiplication is well beyond 10 to 1 compared to business process that are not IT enabled.”

For some industries, the force multiplier can be in excess of 100, note Young and Jude. They see no end to the force multiplier as firms integrate technology with business processes.

“With productivity increases of 3 per cent or more per year, this compounding will double the overall force multiplication in less than 24 years,” they predict. “By the end of the century, IT-enabled productivity gains will increase productivity by more than 1500 per cent.”

Imperative to browse, in the boardrooms.

Tailpiece

“When we found that a lot of people were joining a rival company because our managers were not good…”

“You changed the managers?”

“No, we acquired the rival company!”

dmurali@thehindu.co.in