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•82 The 100 Greatest Business Ideas of All Time

The computer handles these problems by employing Database Management
Systems. This software sits between the database and the systems, and with the use
of other powerful tools, such as structured query language, reports can be generated
for one-off queries that require investigation of the inter-relationships that might
exist between the data sets contained in various databases.

Databases, management systems and structured query language are the road
map that connects up the individual tube stations. They offer revolutionary ways of
identifying markets. ‘Need a nappy, sir? have a beer.’

Ask yourself

Are you aiming your products at the so-called ‘market of one’? Are you using
collected data, yours and other people’s, to home in on the right people with
the right products and services?

Idea 48 – Models maketh managers

Try to imagine a world without spreadsheets. You have the task to suggest to the
board whether or not a new product project is a viable concept. Either the financial
section of the recommendation is going to be pretty weak, with a very limited number
of possible outcomes, or you are going to have to do an awful lot of calculations and
recalculations. The word ‘awful’ is used here in its real sense. The alternative is to
become dependent on the finance department who will answer financial questions
with their function principally in mind. This would be like the spending department
ministers in a government being dependent on the treasury to evaluate the financial
results of their spending plans.

In the 1970s managers wanted to ask the ‘what if’ question to test out risk and
results in various combinations of eventualities. They knew that a new product broke