In his book, The Unfair Advantage, Mark Donohue, describes the strategies he used to become one of the greatest racing drivers of his era.  He won at Indy, LeMans, Daytona and was twice champion of both the Trans Am and Can AM Series.  The crux of his approach was to always look for and then exploit any element that gave him an advantage over his opponents.   Sometimes he found it by stretching a rule, sometimes he found a mechanical or aerodynamic advantage, and sometimes it was simply the combination of his engineering expertise, driving ability, and hard work that produced what his competitors often called his Unfair Advantage.  In business, as in racing, winners are always looking for an unfair advantage.    

American Business discovered its own unfair advantage during the 1990’s and it’s still driving productivity thru the roof.  The engine of that growth is primarily computerization.  The surprise is that, even with the current recession, productivity growth is still cranking along at 1.8% - well ahead of the .14% growth of the previous 9 recessions.   Even Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan has acknowledged that productivity growth now seems to be a key component of the US economy.

Investment Wizard Tobin Smith, author of Changewave Investing, details the elements driving our productivity.  First, the US economy is well into a move from a low margin, labor intensive, industrial economy to a high margin, knowledge based economy.  Second, the computing power to drive that knowledge economy has been doubling every two years for all of the 90’s and shows no sign of slowing.  Finally, communications bandwidth for both voice and data has been growing at an even faster rate driving down the cost of virtually every form of communication. 

Tobin calls these massive economic movements - Changewaves - and uses them to pick the hot investments of the future.  He points out that only a few companies have correctly positioned themselves to ride these changewaves to future prosperity.   They are the ones who have combined business savvy with the right technology and the knowledge to use it. 

Develop Your Own Unfair Advantage. 

I’m willing to bet that you’re a lot like racer Mark Donohue, always searching for an Unfair Advantage, a way to get ahead of your competitors, pick up efficiency in your office or shop, cut costs, expand your business.  Since computing power is the key element in our surging national productivity, here are two focal points you can use to create productivity Changewave in your business.

First, maximize the potential of your current computer technology.   You do that by training yourself and your staff to use your systems and software more efficiently.  I’ve worked with hundreds of companies over the past 20 years and I’m continually amazed at how poorly trained the majority of the employees are – and that includes managers and owners. I’m talking about the basic operations of windows, word processing, spreadsheets, and accounting programs – the bread and butter of most business operations.  

Computing power is worthless unless you have people power to use it.  Many businesses are losing the creativity, flexibility, and value that a well trained employee offers.   The long term cost of this lost productivity far exceeds any training expense.  If you’re looking for a 25 to 40% increase in productivity – training is the place to start.      

Second, use new technology to explode your productivity.   New tech is developing at an enormous rate so your options are many. Key areas that may afford quick productivity gains include:

• Wireless networks – Portable, no cables and just as fast
• Instant Messaging – Corporate use doubled to 4.9 Billion minutes in 2001
• Business Specific Application Software – Search the Internet for software specific to your business     
• High Speed Internet Access (Cable, DSL, Direct Wireless, Satellite) – Speed is money saved
• Computing Power – New PC’s, Memory, Printers, are dirt cheap                  
• Mobile Devices – Data-enabled cell phones & PDA’s can empower your mobile staff

The challenge for business owners and managers is to learn enough about new tech to understand how it might benefit their business.  If you’ve seen the recent set of IBM commercials, you’ll understand that the real challenge may be blending the new tech with your old tech.  Don’t forget to include training in your acquisition costs.