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03 (049-082) chapter 3 1/29/02 4:49 PM Page 57

Gathering the Data 57

the purchase online. Two days later he asks whether or not Mari-
lyn has considered making similar comparisons for the auto pur-
chase they’re planning.
As you consider the potential impact of powerful facts in your
organization, try out this method, just as Marilyn did, and seek to
provide insights not previously available (the goal of effective data
gathering). Based on your company’s primary objectives, such as
profitability and sales growth, take the time to find out what is
important. Then gather the right facts and share the insights.
When it comes to building a more fact-based culture, don’t try
to go at it alone. McKinsey did not achieve its research expertise
without adequate, dedicated resources. Make the investment to
hire research specialists, and grant full authority to purchase the
right journals and reports that will prove useful to decision making
in the organization. Be selective, however. Monitor their use to
control spending, and evaluate their usefulness. This strategy will
vary with the specifics of your organization, of course. A large
multinational will have the need and ability to build a more sophis-
ticated support structure than a five-person start-up. Remember
that you need more than just a budget; you also need the right cul-
tural elements, including the incentives to increase the usage of
facts in your organization. We will discuss this issue in more detail
in the knowledge management section of this chapter.
Finally, given the importance of “good” data sources, we have
included a summary of some of the outstanding research tools cur-
rently available to the public. Table 3-1 (pages 58–59) lists some
powerful search engines and general information guides. In addi-
tion, Appendix A provides a long list of the most helpful data
sources we could find.* Some of these sources contain a lot of gen-
eral information (e.g., Census Bureau data), while others focus on

*Special thanks to David Ernsthausen, information specialist at the Kenan-Flagler School of
Business at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, who assisted in this compila-
tion. Note that although these sources were accurate at the time of writing, Web addresses
and contents can change rapidly.