Knowledge

about things that you dont know

The world to some people is divided into two- things that you know, and things that you dont know.
however, an interesting and useful distinction comes to mind: there are things I'm aware that I dont know, while there are other things that I dont know, and i'm not even aware of.

why is this distinction important, and why so for small businesses?

Psychological reasearch shows that people remember more information when they have a theory in mind. what they remember are both information that confirms the theory, but also information that contradicts the theory.

but what don't you remember? information that has no relevance to the theories you hold.

What i'm suggesting to managers of SMB's - encourage fact based theory building. when you have a theory, that is based on facts, this will help you advance.

the following is a useful real-life example from the Electronics Components Company (Elimec) I work for:

fact 1: from a survey of a sample of our customers, we discovered that a larger than normal percent of people do not answer a question about our website
fact 2: google analytics can show a list of companies that entered the site

now, without a theory these two facts may seem unrelated, especially when they are surrounded by a huge number of facts that assault your sensesevery day.
but theorizing about fact 1, can lead to interesting idea regarding fact 2.

the theory about fact 1: some of our customers do not use the internet to search for us, at least not directly through our website.

the idea about fact 2: comparing the list of companies that entered our website with the list of our customers, may lead to identifying which companies do not reach our website.

ok, but what can be done with companies that do not enter the site? well, easy enough, now you have a list of companies you need to reach otherwise - more meetings, conferences, direct mail.

Bottom Line:
Measure->Theorize->Integrate->Act