Galileo and Formula 1 – The competitive edge of interpretation

Formula 1 racing has a fundamental lesson for anyone: interpretation is a source of competitive edge complemented by corresponding design and engineering applications. Every year, the FIA announces new rules and regulations most of which relate to the car. Understanding them, interpreting them and finding a way to incorporate such interpretation in design and engineering is what will lend a team an edge over other teams. It could be aerodynamics, wing design, engine design and so on. Invariably, there are controversies over certain modifications, new devices made with some teams claiming that what a team has done is illegal, which means that it is an incorrect interpretation. As a corollary, innovation in F1 is squarely centered on this interpretative ability with corresponding design and engineering.

Can we extend this to any business? Consider the IT industry which has a plethora of subscriber-only information providers and research services, each with their analysis and prognosis for specific IT services, software and technologies. Since everybody accesses the same reports, merely following them will force the competitive edge to rest on pace of and excellence in execution.

The world as a book; Interpreting, but how?

Galileo said that nature is a book written in the language of mathematics, a metaphor that haunts sciences even today. All metaphors must be embraced carefully but the metaphor of the book is tempting and has crept into common, everyday language – we often ask people to correctly ‘read’ a situation, problem, environment or whatever. ‘That is an incorrect reading’ or ‘poor reading’ are very common expressions, clearly reinforcing the metaphor of the book as central to our understanding of any world, even if we don’t use the metaphor itself. And it is an active reading because it defines how we understand and respond to any phenomena through specific action. In cricket, ‘reading’ the pitch is a passion and a bet.

There are two points to be noted.

First, whatever we ‘read’ has to be translated into an appropriate function or property or dimension. Sometimes we treat as simple facts what are significant indicators of deep changes in behaviour. For example, it is a common observation today that millions of people watch sports, music, films, TV serials on a range of devices such as tablets and PCs, the smallest being mobile phones. This is not a simple fact; it ‘tells’ us something about watcher behaviour: that people are comfortable with watching on many devices. Hence, persuading people to watch ‘only on the big screen’ – a pleading, persuading slogan used by film-makers even today – is not a simple task. Ever since the advent of video cassettes, enabling movie-watching on small TV screen, this has been the key slogan of the movie industry. Now TV screens have become bigger and we have mobile phones available in a range of sizes and the number of users accessing video content on mobile phones is continuously on the rise. The behavioural change is visible but still must be ‘read’.

Second, to correctly read a book also means to identify what it lacks just as what it says. Let me refer to another topic from science – genes, proteins, genome – which have attracted a great deal of attention. Arguing a radically different perspective to the prevailing orthodoxy, Denis Noble says in ‘The Music of Life’ – biology beyond genes: “From a systems biology point of view, the genome is not understandable as ‘the book of life’ unless it is ‘read’ through its translation into physiological function”. A little later he says: “So, if the genome is the book of life, it is a book with enormous gaps, which nature takes for granted since it never had to work out how to code for such natural phenomena” (Pages 34-35). In general, there are gaps in what we read which force us to look for the ‘missing pieces of information’ without which our ability to translate is at a serious disadvantage – ‘it doesn’t add up’ is a familiar phrase. In the case of quantitative data, this can be statistically addressed through techniques of interpolation and extrapolation but filling up ‘gaps in life as a book’ calls for more, as it expresses itself in multiple ways and modes; it could be just one word, phrase, or image. In one form or another, the world is continuously emitting signals, some of which lead to scientific discoveries with or without practical applications; some lead to businesses. 

So, what’s the point?

The point is that techniques of reading might be a better way to develop appropriate skills for business managers instead of the traditional ‘SWOT’ analysis or any other model of framework which enjoys currency. Interpreting a novel or a short story or crime fiction could well be a more effective means of sharpening analytical skills which include identifying gaps. This is a skill taught at several universities based largely on literary texts while some include multiple sources. The University of Auckland asks:

What will you read for?

• Reinforcing your understanding – textbooks, journal articles, websites.
• Getting an overview – textbooks, encyclopedias, Wikipedia, literature review articles.
• Researching for assignments – journal articles, books, reports or reviews, research data.
• Staying current – newspapers, magazines, discussion in blogs and forums, and audio-visual material.
• Curiosity – books, magazines, blogs.
• Future scoping – career trend publications, websites.

(https://learningessentials.auckland.ac.nz/reading-effectively/atuniversity/)

This format can easily be adapted to business environments.

SWOT analysis might be ‘tried and tested’ but could also be ‘tired’, in the sense that it has become so predictable as to yield cliches than understanding. Archimedes is believed to have said: “Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum to place it, and I shall move the world” (https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/archimedes_101761). A novel way of approaching strategy, tactics, organization structure, skill development in businesses could well be that lever.