Real-time analytics is the key to the intersecting forces shaping the New Age of Innovation. Those forces involve co-creating value with each customer individually and accessing resources from the global supply chain wherever they're available, represented by authors M.S. Krishnan and C.K. Prahalad with the formulas N = 1 and R = G. In this dynamic environment, "foresight, not hindsight, is of value," they say (p. 84).

Managers are aware that data is one of their most valuable assets. In a survey of more than 700 corporate managers and CIOs for InformationWeek, corporate execs say they've put these action points on their list of opportunities for CIOs: "use customer/business data to drive sales growth," and "use customer/business data to influence new product development." Unfortunately, many of the analytical tools available, such as business intelligence and enterprise search tools, are complicated, expensive, and temperamental. Add to that the fact that many organizations don't treat their data assets with the scrupulousness they should, and you see why real-time analytics is a challenge.

Still, it's critical, Prahalad and Krishnan make clear: "Analytic capability is the bridge between the competitive landscape and the clarity of business process to enable action" (p. 106).

-- John Soat

An Old Approach To N = 1
Sometimes old technology is the best technology. Consider customer intimacy: Without a cohesive bond between your business and your customer, it's unlikely you'll be successful. And in my 20 years of developing technology solutions for IT professionals, I still haven't found a better tool for understanding customers than the phone.

Customer intimacy isn't just a label we give to programs to get IT pros to buy our products, it's actually a series of continuous-loop initiatives that ensure our main focus is solving a pain point for our users.

Reaching out to customers is important because they drive innovation.

An important feature in our network management software is a "Give Feedback" button. No matter where the user is in the application, he or she can provide feedback based on a specific feature, why the product doesn't meet his or her expectations, etc. Most important, all users have the opportunity to request new features.

Once a week, the product management team takes this collection of feedback and debates the merits of the features requested. The next step is to reach out to those customers to ask questions about the features they've requested. These are phone conversations, and we may have hundreds of these discussions so we better understand the requests.

Having phone conversations with your customers solves two problems: It gives you better understanding of their requests, and it demonstrates that you're serious about their business and their concerns. While we have developed a strong technology platform within our software to interact with our customers, sometimes it's better to pick up the phone and dial. Your customers want to hear from you!

-- Steve Goodman, CEO, PacketTrap

A Global Twist On Breakfast
This morning I was surprised to find a recipe for upma--a south Indian breakfast dish, typically made of semolina, that Sharadamma, my connoisseur grandmother, used to feed me--on a staid-looking box of Quaker Oats. I was more surprised to find myself cooking it, eating it, and sort of liking it.

In 2005, Frito-Lay launched Quaker Oats in India, and it has found entry into stomachs of the Indian middle class. It's been drumming its cholesterol-reducer message to the country's increasingly diabetic masses: Try our oats with milk or strawberries. If you don't like it, add some spice instead. Either way, you'll save your heart.

The oats upma doesn't sound good but it tastes quite all right. And if this gastro-mayhem isn't R = G, then what is? I feel this in my gut.

-- Praveen Suthrum