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The premise of the book is to let the computer do what the computer is meant to do – repetitive, non-thinking tasks. If a computer is capable of handling a task, then you and your staff should not be spending time on it. Gates continually emphasizes the primary importance of people to an organization and punctuates the necessity of enabling “knowledge workers” to do what they do best – think, strategize, and solve problems. These, of course, are the ultimate processes that grow the business. At the end of each chapter Gates probes the reader to “assess your digital nervous system” which allows you to examine whether you are maximizing the use of technology within your business. For example, hiring someone to administer, score, and transfer data to a template for paper and pencil tests in passé for today’s consulting psychologist. Nearly all major assessments have online capabilities that provide instantaneous results upon the client’s completion of the instrument. Gates starts by outlining his objective facts-based approach to answering key business questions, such as What do your customers think about your business? Where are your competitors winning business and why? Will changing customer demands force you to develop new capabilities? He offers a simple example in the beginning of how Microsoft created a near paperless office. At one point Microsoft had over 1000 paper forms, which it reduced to 60 within a year. As per the most successful entrepreneur in the world, even those 60 had to be justified: 10 were required by law, 40 were required by an outside system, and the remaining 10 were used too seldom to justify the time to digitalize them. Gates reported a savings of over $40 million dollars in 1 year and noted that the most money, some $145 per transaction, was spent on people processing the paperwork. “Redeploy people to value-added activities instead of babysitting.” Gates writes that “knowing your numbers” and dispersing them across the company can greatly inform one’s marketing and sales strategies. For example, data on customer demographics, geographic winning and losing areas, customer feedback analyzed by demographics, geography, etc. can inform your business of where and whom to target strategically. He warns that while some may derive this by intuitive deduction, the numbers don’t lie and often yield surprising results that often change the course of a business initiative. Further rooted in Gates’ words in the notion to share information throughout the organization. “Data empowers knowledge workers…Quick accurate numbers make it possible to provide an immediate response to customer needs.” He further purports that bad news should travel faster. In one of his many steps that speak to company culture as opposed to straight technology, he writes that personal initiative and responsibility thrive in an environment that fosters discussion, i.e., where information is readily shared. Flatter organizations, Gates contends, are more likely to have bad news communicated company wide and acted upon. Data needn’t be collected simply to lay dormant. The other thematic principle Bill Gates emphasizes is that data should be activated directly into solving customer problems. Gates gives several examples of companies such as Jiffy’s Lube’s use of customer data to send out targeted promotions to different market segments and Microsoft’s use of it own software to track order information from customers and suppliers dropping error rates in some cases to zero. His anecdotes are fascinating and stimulating as they illustrate how grand and small technological shifts can really catapult an organization to the next level. It is a great catalyst to start you thinking of ways to technologically streamline your business. And even to ask the more broad question of How much of our time is wasted in unnecessary activities? He does reiteration these same points throughout the book such that reading half to three-quarters will suffice. Now, if your business has a special interest such as health care or the government then the specialized chapters at the end may be worth reading. Overall, a worthwhile read. In closing, if you are ignoring the boost technology could bring to your business, rest assured that your competitors are not.
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Business @ the Speed of Thought:
Using a Digital Nervous System 
According
to Bill Gates, “the key to success is the ability to manage information.”
Still a worthy read since its 1999 publication, Business
@ the Speed of Thought: Using a Digital Nervous System by Bill Gates deftly
illustrates the necessity of gathering information and translating it into
hardcore business objectives. In tandem with this issue’s Spotlight article
from John Fennig, the goal of this text is to demonstrate how the incorporation
of technology into your business, results into a huge savings of time, money,
and headaches. The examples throughout the book are taken big Fortune 500 and/or
Global 1000 concerns but the concepts are just as applicable to small firms and
solo practitioners.