Finding and keeping the right focus

Last week, I completed my first official week of graduate school...and survived. My take away from the whirlwind of a week? I will certainly have my hands full, but the work load has a purpose...to make me a better manager. A better manager of time, manager of priorities, and a manger of my school work. All of this requires...the right focus. Focus, therefore, will be my theme for fall 2010. And not just focus, but the right focus.
Going on day eight of graduate school, I've realized this is ironically an ongoing theme of focus in IS businesses, especially those that research to improve customer satisfaction. For any business to build momentum and maintain strength, finding and then keeping the right focus is all about knowing the business purpose behind each resource intensive effort. After reading this article, I have found companies like Harrah’s find its focus by seeing the elements of it's company relative to the whole. Harrah's identifies its purpose and then select the right tools to fit its business strategy. This maximizes competitive advantage for almost any company.

Companies must devote their resources to one successful formula that fits their business strategy best. Harrah's researched and identified their customer that yielded the most profit and honed in on retaining the loyalty of that particular customer. While requiring complex and meticulous research, Harrah's set and maintained its focus, increasing profits and customer satisfaction. In a Babson Executive Education article, it argues companies are shifting analytical focus on customers, "assessing the likelihood of customer attribution, or identifying sources of problems for customers." The article then goes on to say companies can broaden its focus beyond the narrow, but in the same sense they are careful not to become "too diffuse in their analytical targeting so that they continue to support their primary strategies."

While information systems and technology are rapidly changing virtually every aspect of a business, that business must maintain focus, the right focus, on its business strategy.