Business Intelligence Radar: Pearl Harbor and the Battle of Britain

What is business intelligence?  It’s the set of tools, abilities, and data required to create a picture of the world and how your organization operates in that world.  In building your business intelligence capabilities, you can learn a lot by looking at a historical precedent, the rise of radar, and applying it to your problems of getting to your data.

The Battle of Britain

The fate of the western world was largely determined by the actions of a few people in Britain in the late summer and early fall of 1940.  Poland had fallen, Belgium had fallen, France had fallen.  Great Britain was next.  Prime Minister Winston Churchill lobbied President Franklin Roosevelt for help.  But, Roosevelt was reluctant to fully support a Britain that looked doomed to defeat.

Air power had come into its own and the Nazis planned to use it to clear the way.  Key to their plan was destroying Britain’s air force.  Once it was gone, a seaborne attack would follow.

Winston Churchill knew what was coming and famously announced to Parliament, “We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender…”

The air assault started in July with attacks on convoys in the English Channel.  Shortly thereafter, relentless attacks on the airfields.  The British airmen were outnumbered and exhausted.

Eventually, they were also victorious.  The Nazis gave up their plans for invading Britain and focused their attention on Russia.

A number of  factors led to Britain’s success.  One especially important asset was radar.  Britain was an early innovator in Radar and early warning technologies.  But, as we shall soon see, radar alone wouldn’t win battles.

7 December 1941 – Pearl Harbor

Around 7 am on the 7th of December, 1941 the Japanese arrived.  In a brilliant piece of seamanship and aviation skill they sneaked  up on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.  A few hours later the US fleet lay in shambles.  While a few US fighters managed to take off and tangle with the attackers, their effect was negligible.

After the attack, US President Franklin Roosevelt gave a stirring speech that contained the following, memorable line, “Yesterday, December 7th, 1941 — a date which will live in infamy — the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.”

It was over a year since America’s ally, Britain, had prevailed in the Battle of Britain.   The Americans also had radar.  In fact, American radar detected the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.   So, why was America so soundly defeated at Pearl Harbor?

The answer lies not in radar but in the military’s ability to take the data from radar, assemble it into a meaningful picture, and then act on the result.  The British had developed an entire information network that gathered data from radar, and other sources, assembled it at a central point, and then distributed it, as necessary to commanders in the field.  Each member of the team knew their job and knew how to use the information delivered to them.

At Pearl Harbor, on the other hand, the Americans hadn’t built the information infrastructure.  They captured the raw data but didn’t have the mechanisms for rapidly assembling that data into a coherent picture.  And, they certainly didn’t have the plans for how to act on that picture.

Business Intelligence

This brings us to the concept of business intelligence (BI).  What makes for effective BI?  It’s the ability to gather the  relevant data, integrate it into a coherent picture of reality, and the processes necessary to execute based on what that picture shows.

In large part, organizations already have the data – they have the radar.  Where?  In their operational systems.  In the ERP, sales, manufacturing, legal, HR, and other systems that run the business on a day to day basis.  Each entry, each transaction provides a pixel in the overall picture.

But, most organizations are more like the Americans in 1941 than the British in 1940 – they don’t have an integrated view of that data and they don’t have business processes to take advantage of it.

Which leaves me with a question for you… 1940 Britain or 1941 America, where are you?

Next post… Using the Data From Business Intelligence Radar

Eyes Wide Shut: The Case for a Developing a Corporate Early Warning System

In the Battle of Britain… radar was the eyes of Fighter Command… its effectiveness was greatly enhanced by being only one element of, and integrated into, a sophisticated command and control network which received the raw information of radar plots and rapidly applied it to direct the use of precious resources of pilots and aircraft to the best possible effect.

Courtesy Imperial War Museum, London

GM’s bankruptcy wasn’t a big surprise – it simply represented the nadir in a twenty year decline where the company’s shrinking market share and excessive labor costs had been well publicized.  In contrast, Toyota’s current sudden acceleration disaster seemed to come from out of nowhere.  In January the company was the industry darling, protecting its customers and our environment with safe, reliable vehicles.  Come February, the brand had become toxic, rapidly obliterating billions of dollars of shareholder value with a devastating impact on long-term goodwill.

But, were there really no warning signs?  I think that highly doubtful.  If Toyota is like the companies we work with, the indicators were there, in corporate systems, though probably lying dormant just out of executive visibility.  Imagine if six months ago an astute manager had correctly interpreted them and stakeholders had taken corrective action.

How does an organization develop an early warning system?  As a last resort, it’s easy to find signs of impending trouble in a company’s legal case matter management system.  These systems support corporate legal departments by capturing information about the content and status of the company’s legal case portfolio.  While each case will follow its own trajectory, in the aggregate the litigation for particular conditions will follow identifiable, predictable patterns.

A great example is the litigation trend that followed the auto industry’s introduction of standard passenger airbags.  Shortly after the technology was widely deployed, trends became visible in the product liability litigation that followed.  Tracking these trends, Federal standards were amended and companies introduced second generation (low powered) airbags, weight-based deactivation and instrument panel indicator lights.  They were also better able to plan and budget their legal costs.  Similar data must have been available at Toyota.  Imagine the billions of dollars, not to mention the innocent lives that could have been saved, if only someone had been looking.

But before troubles hit the legal case management system, they are often captured in a variety of other systems used for daily operations.  Great places to look include warranty claim systems and call center systems.  Just as radar provided the ability to foresee and react to threats during the Battle of Britain, wise companies will integrate information from these systems to create corporate early warning systems that will provide executives with the ability to foresee and react to threats on their company, preempting the worst fiascos.

Developing an early warning system doesn’t even have to be expensive.  Companies already own the data.  What’s needed are the critical steps of highlighting trends that predict trouble and making those trends visible in the form of management dashboards and automated alerts.  Start small, but start now – you can always expand later.  Can you imagine the ROI on this relatively small investment?

Create your own early warning system, transforming your call center, warranty and legal expenses from overhead into investments in a valuable strategic asset that can stave off crises before they occur.  It doesn’t take advanced analytics to know that Toyota’s current calamity could have been avoided had they had the foresight to do so.

Give us a call to talk about how an early warning system can help you reduce the risk to your organization.