A new study of entrepreneurial small companies conducted by Halpern Info Services gathered views about information gathering, use and impact on business performance from hundreds of small business owners and executives in North America.
The goals of the survey were threefold: to gain insight of how information is valued; to understand corporate business research processes and preferences, and to understand who handles information research. Processes, operations and decision-making affecting business performance were surveyed.
The challenge for today's businessperson is to identify the information that is needed to fulfill the organization's needs, find it and use it in a timely manner.
Key Findings:
An overwhelming majority of respondents believe "up to date, practical and reliable information is critical to their company success" (82.1 percent strongly agree and 10.7 percent somewhat agree, for a total of 92.8 percent). See Figure 1.
Figure 1
Despite the overwhelming consensus that up to date information is critical to a company's success (Statement 1), only 25 percent have a well-defined, complete and systematic research methodology to find specific information. This lack of systematic processes effectively limits the competitiveness of the business, wasting time searching, wasting money and limiting productivity. Management of information resources is critical to managing the business well.
Figure 2
82.1 percent either strongly agree or somewhat agree that the impact of not receiving timely, practical and relevant information is understood. While the problem of finding relevant, authoritative, specific and up-to-date information is common to all industries, all companies, regardless of size or demographic, one often does not have the time or fortitude or subject matter knowledge to find reputable information efficiently. To meet the demands of businesses and individuals who "need it now," there are specialists and special sources available. There are commercial grade databases with billions of documents from hundreds of reputable providers and news sources that are indexed and up to date, accessible by trained information research specialists. See Figure 3.
Figure 3
When asked how specific information was obtained, market research was chosen by 29.6 percent of respondents; do-it-myself was listed by almost half of the respondents (48.2 percent); outside consultant and information specialist both received 7.4 percent of the responses; and Marketing departments and interns/MBA students were tied at 3.7 percent. See Figure 4.
Figure 4
The Internet has changed the face of information research, but not everything needed is available in digital format. Many special collections housed at academic and research libraries are not digitized and unlikely to be soon. Blogs and forums and discussion groups too are potent and timely, though not always vetted or authoritative. Primary research using the telephone can be the source that fills in the gaps or provides findings that are not available in print or digital. In other cases, directories, journals, newspapers, associations, specialty sites and video are sources. Not everything is in English; some countries purposely make their country-specific and market-specific information difficult to access. Trending information with archived information dating back decades is sometimes needed and compared with current conditions.
Internet search competencies are an important skill today. Likewise, research skills today means knowing where to look is not sufficient; one must know how to look. One needs to know how to research, retrieve, write and report on findings. Getting the research done right - and quickly - is required. Professional researchers sport advanced degrees, certification and ongoing training in such fields as business reference, competitive intelligence, public records research (property ownership, professional licenses, bankruptcies and court judgments), international business research, medical/biotech/pharma and other fields.
This and other findings are provided in this first of a series of benchmarking studies of attitudes and behavior of businesspeople and their decision-making processes and performance. To find out more about professional research information practices and results, please contact Richard Halpern at richard@halperninfoservices.com , visit the Web site at http://www.halperninfoservices.com or call (508) 346-3225.
This piece is brought to you by the Information Management editorial staff.
