We recently completed the first of what we expect will be many readership surveys. As any analyst knows, it’s nearly impossible to make improvements if you don’t know where things stand at the moment and you don’t know the problem you’re facing. The online survey, conducted in March, not only gave us a good idea of where we are in terms of readership satisfaction, wants and needs, it also provided an invaluable roadmap regarding where we should be heading in the months and years ahead.
An analytically inclined manager once shared an anecdote about his troubles getting sales agents to use their laptop computers. Some of the agents had been around for decades, and the idea of using laptops wasn’t just foreign, it was unthinkable. In one particular meeting a sales agent showed up and declared that he’d finally broken down and used his laptop to write a memo. He then proceeded to demonstrate. Laying the computer on his lap, he pulled out a sheet of paper and wrote a memo with his pen, using the laptop as a writing surface.
Gregory is an old friend of mine, a seasoned sales leader, a start-up turnaround specialist and an early stage company executive. He has seen an awful lot in his long career, and whenever I get together with him I inevitably learn something. When I see his name flash up on my cell phone, I pick up with a smile, thinking he’s calling to see when we might sneak out of work for an afternoon at the ballpark. Turns out he has something quite different in mind.
Princeton Consultants (www.princeton.com) is a consulting firm with offices in Princeton, N.J., and New York City. The firm specializes in optimization, combining information technology and management consulting in every assignment. Its goal: help clients to create operational and strategic advantage by using custom-produced software and business-process changes to improve decision-making. Its mission: educate senior executives about how optimization enables companies to achieve competitive advantage, drive up the value of assets under management and provide a high-priority strategic investment.
Austin, Texas, continually ranked as one of the most livable cities in the United States, and where culture and music meet technology and entrepreneurship, will play host to the 2010 INFORMS (Institute for Operations Research and Management Sciences) Annual Meeting, Nov. 7-10. Major activities will take place in the newly modernized Austin Convention Center (offering free WiFi) and at the recently opened Hilton, both a short walking distance from Lady Bird Lake — an oasis of beauty and recreation. Be advised that Austin is a place that makes everybody feel at home. Austin has more than its share of offbeat characters, Mexican free-tailed bats and a spirit of creativity that has given rise to such national brands as Dell Computers, Whole Foods and Willie Nelson.
Making a correct diagnosis on a patient is a very challenging task for a doctor. A complex disease can manifest through any number of symptoms that often leave “trial and error” as the only method for arriving at the correct diagnosis. To aid doctors in this daunting task, mathematical modeling can be used to help guide a diagnosis.
