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The Power to
Predict
Ranadivé’s emphasis is the next 400-metre ground to be covered in the marathon run, as no one knows what the terrain will look like at mile 26, which can empower the companies to finish ahead of the crowd and get into the winning circle. Real-time business revolutionised the business of 1990s through real-time technologies, processes and practices; its transition towards predictive business will enable companies to do things that were not possible earlier. Predictive business is about anticipating the business problems and opportunities and acting pre-emptively for profit potential. It is about the ability of any business enterprise to anticipate customer needs and be ready to satisfy these on real-time basis (as soon as these emerge). The power to predict, as also the ability to integrate and sustain it in a complex and ever-changing market, is crucial in the technology-driven world. Establishing relationships of historical patterns with future can enable companies to seize every emerging great opportunity. In the first three chapters, the author discusses the success of real-time business and its transition to predictive business. The chapter on Excellence in Financial Services provides us with an overview of the top buzzword of the financial industry: algorithmic trading, approach to automated trading using computer-managed instructions to maximise the advantage of money managers. A chapter on the users getting rid of the monopoly of Plain Old Telephone Services (POTS) and gearing up for a new round of intense competition with the growing popularity of Internet Protocol (VolP), a technology that eliminates distance as a factor, gives a glimpse of the things to come. The chapter on transportation and logistics, retail and consumer goods, healthcare and life science and energy efficiency show how new opportunities will change the functioning of business organisations. Services related with healthcare in particular will see a complete change with the use of electronic health records and offer us a better quality of medical care more efficiently. Energy production and utilities will develop the ability of responding to changes in supply using a network of real-time sensors, effectively resolving any energy supply crisis before it bothers the consumers. The chapter on Predictive Battlespace has been devoted to the use of technologies like Network-Centric Warfare (NCW), Sense and Respond Logistics (SRL) etc. by the defence organisations. Though we know a lot is similar between battle and business; this could not be the only reason for the author to include this chapter in a book of business management. His predictive business fundamentals include a new role for leaders who must be able to thrive on ambiguity and turn danger into glaring opportunity. The author assures the reader that a change in the mindset of the top leadership to get into the predictive mode and use technology can ensure the long-term prosperity of their companies. Getting the business ready for predictive management needs alignment of customer focus with IT and business strategies for the use of best practices. The endnotes give us the details of references material used by the author. This is a valuable book for every executive’s library. It is bound to give tremendous competitive advantage to him or her to know what their clients will want and need before they know it. The book has a large number of illustrations from business and industry. Real-world case studies of market leaders like DBS Bank, FedEx, Pirelli, Adidas-Solomon, Southwest Airlines and Wal-Mart aid analysis and application of predictive methods advocated in the book.
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THIS is the follow-up of the
author’s earlier book on real-time business, The Power of Now. It is
meant to help executives to predict and understand future to know what their
customers need, which can keep them ahead of the competitors.