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Mining the data

For a body to remain healthy, its receptors and sensors need to be passing and receiving messages freely, speedily and accurately. So it is with a business. You have to know what’s going on, so good management requires good information. And information is everywhere. It is the spindrift on the wind in the world in which we work, the plankton in the sea where we try to get things done. Steven Pinker in his book How the Mind Works says ‘information itself is nothing special: it is found wherever causes leave effects. What is special is information processing.’ Information will always be there. Equally, more information will always be available; more that may be useful or that you may not be able to cope with. What is certain ...

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