Simple ways of improving information storage: Always produce contents and an index for information, to make things easy to retrieve. Stick to a common format. Put a " next revised" date so people know when it is modified or added to. Seek advice from professionals, for instance, from the Chartered Institute of Marketing's librarians. Identify several similar companies to yourself in non-competing sectors. They should have similar supply chains and customers. Seek agreement with them to swap data confidentially on sales, customer satisfaction, margin, key account profitability, Web effectiveness, campaign effectiveness, process management e.g. time, people, other resources, department costs, training and advertising spent, etc.
Swap data on a preagreed basis e.g. quarterly, with an annual review. Create templates and meet occasionally. Benchmark against competitors, based on tracking their sales, annual reports, trade intelligence research and advertising campaign monitoring. Talk to the supply chain including your own customers. But, do not form an information-swapping arrangement with direct com- petitors; these could be viewed as a cartel which is illegal. It is also important to benchmark data, and establish where a company is now, This can be gleaned from a number of sources: Previous presentations, reports and journals. Collective knowledge of agencies and current management, including sales force. Knowledge of partners and associates, trade/distributors. . Databanks, audits, financial information. Libraries, catalogues, public domain case studies. Manuals, memos, strategy and policy documents.