One of the most important lessons a student of business must learn, and one of the most difficult to teach, is that while it is good to know data, it is far more important to understand the underlying process that generates the data. This is where useful information for decision-making is found. Data are largely reflecting the process that generates it. It is the temperature found on the thermometer that records a fever. The data generating process, however, is the underlying germ, bacteria, chemistry and biology of the body that is making it sick.
A few weeks ago my colleague and fellow Murphy Center associate, Dr. Melissa Trussell, wrote about the big differences in measures of economic welfare on either end of the F.J. Torras Causeway — a distance of only 4 miles. Out of 395 governmental units in Georgia, the island end of the causeway ranks in the top 5 when considering average income while the Brunswick end ranks 390. People who commented on her piece were struck by the differences — not by the levels. Really useful information in data is found in the differences or changes. The nurse may tell you that your temperature is 100.4 degrees but what matters more is whether your temperature has risen to 100.4 or has fallen to 100.4. Which ever it is produces totally different treatments.
So, lets ask the obvious question. Why are the economic ends of the causeway so different? If we can understand the differences then maybe we can recommend actions that will close the gap by raising the mainland end.
One end of the causeway is, on average, younger than the other. One end has more wealth than the other. One end has attained, on average, a higher level of education. These are obvious reasons that are simply descriptive in nature and are of probably vey little use.
Here, however, is the key I believe. One end of the 4-mile divide has more business experience with failure and success. The presence of their wealth suggests that their successes outweighed their failures. In the end, they simply know more because the have lived through more. Another way to say this is that there is not only and economic gap between the ends of the causeway; there is also a business knowledge gap. The knowledge found in the business experiences of our retirement community is simply amazing and probably matched only by the business knowledge found in the financial district in New York City.
Now this is useful! Knowledge is portable. It can come across the causeway and it can be shared with the entrepreneurs and small businesses on the mainland. It just needs the vehicle! The weekly meeting of entrepreneurs, One Million Cups, is a start but a formal program of business mentoring would truly be significant. The sharing of this knowledge to solve problems or to enhance success would be a noble end.
Imagine that. Opposite ends of the causeway working together to make the community a better place to live, work and play. Gosh, this might even become our community’s shared vision statement — working together.
Dr. Skip Mounts is the Dean of the School of Business and Public Management at College of Coastal Georgia, a professor of economics, and an associate of the Reg Murphy Center for Economic and Policy Studies.
Reg Murphy Center