Economist.com: "America's GE is known for its almost obsessive quest for perfection. And Mr Reiner heads the company's most important initiative: 'digitising' as much of its business as possible. That not only means buying and selling most things online but, more importantly, setting up a digital nervous system that connects anything and everything involved in the company's business: IT systems, factories and employees, as well as suppliers, customers and products"

[This is from the opening article in a great Economist survey on the real-time economy. You'll probably need a subscription to the Economist to read this, but you should have one of those anyway]

Microsoft and others have used the 'digital nervous system' analogy before. What GE's experience seems to be driving home is a truth about that analogy that I have seen mentioned elsewhere. A digital nervous system that only connects to 50% of the organism isn't very interesting or useful.

Perhaps the old 80/20 rule here has to be applied in a very careful way. 80/20 could lead you down a path that says integration isn't relevant. But would would you do with 80% of a nervous system?

It's only when you get 100% coverage that you begin to reap the benefits of digitization from a management perspective. And you can't get there until everyone you do business with can talk to you electronically. Maybe in this case it's a 99/1 rule. 99% of the management benefit comes when you get the last 1% of the system in place. That sure makes it something tough to stay focused on.

2:27:29 PM •  • comment