The Sprinkler in the Rain Storm
Posted on 01. Nov, 2011 in Kirchner Blog
Everyone at KPCG is a seasoned professional. We have literally spent years in the trenches “being there” and “doing that”. So we have seen and now recognize a lot of patterns.
In looking at businesses that seem to have gone off-track, we rely heavily on pattern recognition. Sometimes the patterns are obvious. However, sometimes the pattern is obscured by chaotic data and/or information. In these cases it is just as important to determine the data that should be ignored as the data to which we should attend.
To illustrate this notion of obscured patterns, I will use an example I used in a study I authored several years ago.[1] Consider a water sprinkler operating during a torrential rainstorm. Is there a pattern formed by the droplets from the sprinkler? Intuitively we say, “of course”. However, the rainstorm obscures the pattern and until the rain subsides a bit, no pattern is discernable.
When getting businesses back on track it is sometimes just as important to determine what to ignore as what attend to. At KPCG we understand the difference.
[1] McNees, P, Meneses, K & Su, X. Live Item Index: An intervention research tool. Nur Res, March/April 2008. 57(2), 69-74.
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