What Is a Real-Time Company?

A company that competes by using up-to-date information to progressively remove delays to the management and execution of its critical business processes.

The business goal: To save time and money by responding faster to events and by reacting more flexibly to rapid shifts in the marketplace.

The technology risk: Business activity monitoring can reap more information than managers know how to manage or harness into meaningful responses.

The management risk: A tendency to micromanage at the expense of stifling innovation and creativity—and a danger of focusing less on longer-term strategic goals.

Results so far at GE: Some cost cutting achieved; no influence yet on revenues but some change in purchasing and sales strategies.