Managing in a Time of Great Change

CHAPTER TEN

Be Data Literate; Know What to Know

EXECUTIVES HAVE BECOME COMPUTER-LITERATE. The younger ones, especially, know more about the way the computer works than they know about the mechanics of the automobile or the telephone. But not many executives are information-literate. They know how to get data. But most still have to learn how to use data.

Few executives yet know how to ask, “What information do I need to do my job? When do I need it? In what form? And from whom should I be getting it?” Still fewer ask, “What new tasks can I tackle now that I get all these data? Which old tasks should I abandon? Which tasks should I do differently?” Practically no one asks, “What information do I owe? To whom? When? In what form?”

A “database,” ...