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56 The McKinsey Mind

analyst reports, census data, and the like. Identify the key data
sources for the kind of information most important to your par-
ticular organization, and spend whatever is necessary to secure
these sources—within the constraints of your oganization’s budget,
of course.

IMPLEMENTATION GUIDANCE
Strategic data gathering can significantly improve your effective-
ness and efficiency. Perhaps a (hypothetical) nonbusiness example
will help bring the point home.
Jerry and Marilyn want to buy a new car. Jerry sees an adver-
tisement on TV for a new SUV from Honda. He likes the way it
looks and knows from experience that Honda makes quality auto-
mobiles. He goes out the next day to the dealer, sees a color that he
knows Marilyn likes, and orders the car. It will arrive in two
weeks.
Marilyn has a hunch that Jerry is moving too quickly on the
car purchase as he often relies on his intuition to guide his actions.
Being a bit more fact-oriented, she ponders her situation and
decides to do a little research. She logs on to her new fast-access
Internet connection that her son helped her install the weekend
before and begins gathering data and accessing consumer reports
(see Appendix A for similar leads).
Once she has compared features and statistics for the various
models (utilizing key decision criteria such as room for grandkids,
safety, and fuel efficiency), she changes gears. She then gathers
some information about different fishing rod and reel combina-
tions because she knows Jerry is thinking about buying new equip-
ment for the annual family trip to the lake. She prints out some
excellent, brief comparison reports on different fishing sets, includ-
ing price data, from four different manufacturers. Jerry is
impressed by the rod and reel information and together they make