Guest Commentary

There is one concept that can generally describe the business of Northwest Arkansas: growth. With this characteristic comes a set of challenges for the managers of growing enterprises. As businesses grow, it is vital that they begin to think like their Fortune 500 counterparts and take steps to ensure they can compete efficiently and effectively in a global marketplace.

Many business elements can be adapted for growth simply by applying familiar techniques on a larger scale. In considering the problems of growth, however, one must consider a problem of ratios and ‘margin of error.’

Consider an example: XYZ Company may change accounting software every year, depending on the features available and the company’s specific needs. Assume this change takes one week of adjustment for each financial services employee. When the company has fewer than 10 such employees, the cost of such a change is high, but manageable. As XYZ Company grows, however, this high cost will become burdensome and finally, unacceptable.

The answer lies in strategic planning. While this is a familiar concept for most managers, it is not frequently applied to information systems in growing companies. Since information systems are one of the most critical and expensive, aspects of a business, it is extremely important to give adequate care and planning.

In developing a strategic information systems plan, an organization first, must establish a ‘baseline’ to represent the status quo. Managers must define the current mechanisms for handling information within their organizations. It is important to remember that methods for handling information are not necessarily electronic or ‘high-tech,’ but the flow of information by all mechanisms is the life of any business.

Once such a baseline has been developed, short and mid-range growth plans and estimates should be developed and analyzed. During this phase, it is important to look at each of the information handling mechanisms previously identified and determine how these must change and grow to meet the needs of the growing organization.

Finally, the baseline and growth plans developed during the first two steps can be analyzed together to provide several vital pieces of information. These include a ‘catch-up plan’ designed to help information handling meet current requirements, a set of estimated requirements for the future and an implementation plan. This implementation plan will guide the information handling mechanisms from their current ‘baseline’ levels, through the ‘catch-up’ phase in the short term and on to the growth requirements in the mid-term.

A well-designed strategic information systems plan, in conjunction with the accompanying management mindset, will save the growing company from wasting vital money and resources on repurchase, ‘Band-Aid’ solutions, and inefficiency. In thinking about efficient use of an enterprise’s most valuable asset, information, it is also important to consider protecting that information.

The managers of growing businesses must certainly begin to think about two important ways to protect their vital information, information security and disaster recovery. Information security deals with protecting sensitive or critical data from threats such as disclosure and modification. Disaster recovery consists of the steps necessary to allow a business to recover from a natural or artificial catastrophe.

As Northwest Arkansas companies emerge into a fiercely competitive global marketplace, they must realize that industrial espionage is commonplace and is a serious threat to any growing organization. Recent estimates have placed yearly losses near $100 billion for American companies. It is critical that managers consider security issues in all aspects of doing business and provide a strong mandate to their organizations to do the same. By taking these fundamental steps, in conjunction with security assessments, security awareness training and strong education programs, managers can build robust organizations capable of competing well in tough markets.

In addition to protecting vital information from malicious threats, managers must be prepared to protect that information from a variety of other hazards. Statistics show that a company unable to do business for three days is more likely to fail than overcome that hardship. An organization put out of commission for a month will almost certainly fail. While disaster recovery options range from data back-ups stored off-site in a secure location to redundant computing resources located in other parts of the country, the most important element is the ‘disaster recovery plan.’ This plan must be well-developed, regularly maintained and aggressively rehearsed to maintain an organization’s ability to survive even a minor hardship.

Northwest Arkansas is a breeding ground for successful national companies. With attention to some of the unique challenges presented to growing firms, this area can also be the source of dynamic, well-prepared managers capable of international success. In preparing for growth, these professionals will take into account the tools available in strategic information systems planning, information security and disaster recovery. n

David Brussin is president and a senior consultant with Corprotech Inc. of Fayetteville.