Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Sites and Options
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How Firms and Corporates Grow in any Economy
The rules of economics and business are such that in any economy, old or new, recession or boom, the basic rules governing growth are the same. Indeed, ever since the modern day capitalist model of business emerged, growth at any cost and in any economy has been the driving force behind all the decisions that […]
Six Sigma Methodology – DMAIC and IDOV
Six Sigma is a process oriented methodology designed to improve business performance by improving specific areas of strategic business processes. There are 2 different methodologies available for carrying out improvements in processes or operations. Improvements can be of two types: improving the existing process or designing a new process altogether. When we have an existing […]
Do Farm Loan Waivers and Bank Bailouts Make for Sound Economic and Fiscal Policies?
Farm Loan Waivers, Bank Bailouts, and Moral Hazards Farm Loan Waivers are the Flavor of the Season as Indian States take turns indulging in a game of who waives the maximum loans taken by the farmers. Indeed, with elections approaching, a form of Competitive Populism has begun wherein each political party is trying to outdo […]
What is Project Management?
A project in any organization is collaboration across departments to achieve a single well defined objective. The process of planning, organizing and managing resources to achieve the organizational objective is called project management. Project management is very important in production of goods and services. Idea generation to final production of product or service, each step […]
We are drowning in a sea of information. We are inundated with news, views, opinions, facts, and information every time we log in to the internet or turn on the TV. This constant barrage of information thrown at us nonstop in a 24/7 cycle makes us weary and lost in this never-ending repetitive world. Therefore, it is very important for professionals, students, and anyone who wants to focus and concentrate to learn the art of separating the wheat from the chaff and to lead productive lives that are meaningful and deep.
For instance, knowing what is happening all over the world instantaneously and uninterruptedly would produce a fatigue in our minds and lead to exhaustion that can drain productivity and lead to loss of focus. One does not need to know all the news and happenings on Twitter, Facebook, Blogs, and on TV all the time.
Unless one learns the habit of separating what one wants from what is available, most likely one would end up with what has been called information overload that denotes the extraordinary amount of information that we are being bombarded with constantly.
Many companies have banned social media sites and even internet sites in an attempt to make the employees focus on the work. Despite these measures, many employees still find ways and means to get updated and to log in to other sites much like addicts who would do anything for a fix.
While we are not against getting facts and information from diverse sources in a bid to stay ahead of the curve, what we are advocating is the trend of being constantly on the move by surfing continuously which can have adverse side effects.
It must be remembered that this trend when it goes out of control is as bad as getting hooked on to psychotropic substances and much like that it can lead to shorter attention spans, need for instant gratification, and a general sense of being frazzled.
The truly productive employees are those who do not multitask nor spend endless hours watching the big game scores or news and event updates from around the world. Indeed, one of the reasons investment bankers and consultants are much sought after is that they have learnt to distinguish between short term and ephemeral trends and instead, detect longer-term trends and extrapolations from existing information that is meaningful and makes business sense.
The present generation Y has grown up not knowing what it is like to live without the internet or the TV. This means that their attention to detail is as short as the cryptic SMS (Short Messaging Service) or the Tweet and therefore, many occupational and lifestyle experts are worried that this aspect would lead us to a situation where we lose sight of the longer and deeper narrative and instead, settle for the fleeting moment that leads us to a “Present Shock” where the immediacy is more important than the longer term and where the present overwhelms us leading to a general sense of disorientation. This is not the way businesses and institutions have been built in earlier decades and this constantly changing and ever flux-filled times are proving to be a challenge for marketers, policymakers, and business leaders.
Apart from this the crux of the issue is that when we are inundated with information overload, there is a danger that we might lose the essential information and instead, pick up drivel and nonsense from the information sources which would lead to situations where businesses make the wrong decisions based on faulty information and wrong assumptions.
This is the danger that information overload poses to us and it is better sooner than later that we as individuals learn to “switch off” when needed and to master the art of managing too much information and develop the skill of finding the right data instead of paying attention to meaningless data.
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Communication Systems and Groupware – Information System Concepts that Apply in All Functional Areas of Business
February 12, 2025
