Business management research - to do or not to do?
[A confession from a professional researcher]
Business management research is my passion. Connecting business matters to social matters is my hobby. To see others running their businesses without paying attention to details (i.e. evaluating probable outcomes but not relying on real data) and, too often, without caring about their employees (i.e. considering the social part of business) makes me wonder what goals we are all trying to pursue in reality.
But it is philosophy, you will say and, perhaps, you will be right. Partly.
Putting aside my concern about live people doing business for all of us (small business owners included), I would like to highlight that there can be no success in business if things are not thoroughly considered beforehand and analysed afterwards. Money paid to professionals or your own time and energy put into market research do cost you, but without the initial and concluding research you can never be sure where exactly you stand. And, as my experience shows, huge sums of money are often wasted on business activities, the outcomes of which have not been properly estimated in the beginning and effectively monitored in the process of doing real things in any market. This is one of the most common reasons why ICT projects, like any other projects, may fail.
Sometimes, simple luck (being in the right place at the right time) helps us "take off" successfully, but in most cases, it is hard work, proper market research, adequate calculations, and, yes, our staff, that will help us eventually succeed.
Take care of yourselves! :)