Nano Analytics

A lot has been written and spoken about Nano technology over the past many years. Billions of dollars have been spent on research leading to commercialization and application of this technology to products of everyday use. In its true essence Nano technology is nothing more than altering of the property of materials by making changes at the smallest level (within a molecule or an atom).

What is eventually achieved is material with improvised properties and in some cases new material that can be used to cost effectively replace the standard one. Some examples are seen in the automobile and aviation industries, where quite often new material is tested and used.

It intrigues many like me, to explore and discuss the applicability of the same principal to businesses, using advanced analytics.

Businesses today have reached a certain maturity with respect to standard performance measurement criteria, like return on capital employed (ROC/ ROI), PE ratio, debt equity ratio, etc. At the operational level, it’s often seen that most companies within an industry segment operate at similar levels of efficiency, with similar products, processes and, services within the same markets.

Most try to differentiate themselves either through branding (communication) or product differentiation (functionality), or by reach (expansion), or by business models (market /environment), but this is not enough to sustain.

It is also being increasingly realized now that for sustainability of any industry, in today’s ever evolving global business environment, its basic facets have to be constantly reviewed.

Paradigm shifts are not new anymore and many businesses struggle to keep a tab of these, to evolve with them. It is becoming aptly clear now that changes in enterprise have to start happening at the minutest level to get better and more permanent results. Managers and analyst have to identify the one most important parameter or parameters that will alter a business process and better the characteristics of its output permanently. These parameters then need to be tracked improved and monitored on a continuous basis to get desired results.

Sustainable success thus, in my opinion can be delivered by continuously making changes at the Nano level and what better than advanced analytics to make it happen. Advanced analytics is one of the best ways to identify hidden correlations within various parameters that are inputs, outputs or external influences to a business. Understanding these relationships becomes important to modify characteristics of the final outputs.

There have been many applications of Nano techniques in the field of medicine, it’s now time to carry its advantages to other industries as well.