On fuel spills, news, seeing connections where others don't, and the power of research alerts...

With a fuel spill in English Bay in the news this morning, the following BCG article caught my eye as I scanned one of my many email alerts over lunch:

Forecasting the Future of Marine Fuels

- an article in bcg.perspectives by the Boston Consulting Group (March 17, 2015)

It's interesting to see that LNG (natural gas) is one of the key alternatives to the environmentally-unfriendly bunker fuel commonly used in cargo ships.  The sort of fuel that spilled today.  Hmmm... do you happen to know of any provinces that are rapidly developing a major LNG industry?  Maybe a province that is known for strong pro-environmental attitudes among its citizens?

Frankly, I have no clear idea how the move to LNG in the shipping industry might directly connect with Supernatural BC and its moves on the natural gas front... at the very least, I suspect that our constantly-struggling shipbuilding industry might care. And maybe this sort of thing could affect the thinking (and the messaging) around pipelines: Are the potential impacts of refueling the increased numbers of tankers with locally produced LNG being taken into account? Likely just a very small bump in demand, but perhaps a major shift in environmental concerns and resistance if LNG emissions and spills are truly so much less harmful.

My point (finally!) is that business operates on the margin and thrives on change.  If your business research is only taking into account what already exists, rather than watching for imaginative connections between stories, trends and issues, then you are really only researching what others have already seen and done -- not what might happen tomorrow. And it's the tomorrow stuff that really matters, no matter if your area is strategic planning, marketing, or HR.

You need to be curious about all developments in your industry, your consumers, and your competitors, but you should also be reading more broadly, including scanning the general news, and you need to be constantly considering how all that information might interconnect in a new way that others haven't yet spotted.  There are no shortcuts.  Well... maybe setting up alerts is a bit of a shortcut...

Which brings me to the joys of research and news alerts...

We're all overwhelmed with information (like this long post!), but that's partly because it can seem like a giant, amorphous, smothering fog of details. It might, then, seem perverse to set up alerts to have still more information flow in by email or in RSS or social media feeds, but with alerts you are at least getting a personalized selection of information coming directly to you.

See this earlier BUEC Buzz post for some of the organizations that I track on a regular basis: On gleaning data and insights from research firm sites…. Most such organizations offer some sort of an alert service.  I've even written a recent post on the BCG alerts specifically: BCG alerts – free, yet valuable business information!

Plus many of our databases (e.g., Business Source Complete and Canadian Newsstand) allow you to easily set up search or publication alerts so that you can keep on top of developments in your field across thousands of publications. Ask your local business/economics librarians for a quick intro to alert services. Our contact info is below and we're always happy to chat about such cool things!

To recap: Local news story on small fuel spill + BCG alert about largely unrelated topic = Ramblings on the need for creative lateral thinking + Need for wide awareness of all trends + Ability of research alerts to save you time = A suggestion that a chat with your business librarians might be a good idea for you.   It's all connected!

-- MarkB

On behalf of your always-informed-and-connected business/economics librarians:

Mark Bodnar (Business – Burnaby): mbodnar@sfu.ca

Megan Sorenson (Business – Vancouver): megan_sorenson@sfu.ca

Ania Dymarz (Business – Surrey): adymarz@sfu.ca

Carla Graebner (Economics – Burnaby): cgraebne@sfu.ca