This book…is a book all about how companies should embrace the 'information culture' in order to gain advantage over their competitors.

The book bases its content on information obtained from 50 or so large companies, mostly US- and UK-based, who are classed as being on the road to 'information mastery'. It seeks to analyse this information and distil it into a philosophy of how to go about becoming an 'information master'. There are some interesting and useful statistics thrown up by this analysis. The author makes the point, for instance, that over 80 per cent of most firm's investment in information is in the hardware - ever faster computers etc - whereas he shows that only 10 per cent of a company's information competency actually comes from IT. There then follows the vicious circle whereby the investment in hardware fails to bring expected returns, the problem is erroneously identified as being one of insufficient computing power or technical capability, leading to more money being wasted in this area.

The author identifies seven core competencies which make up the requirement for information mastery. These are people, processes, organisation, culture, leadership, information, and technology. Each of these is explored at length.

The companies analysed fall into one of four categories: retail, banking, insurance and telecommunications. These sectors are all concerned with dealing with the public as customers on a one-to-one basis. The whole thrust of the book deals with how useful it is to obtain as much information as possible about individual customers in order to target them more efficiently, to nurture the good and to dispose of the bad…

The author does give some very strong messages and evidence about how investment in an information culture gives unexpectedly high payback, and so it could be a good book to use as ammunition for anyone in this sector planning a campaign of this sort.

Information Masters: Secrets of the customer race, John McKean, Wiley, 1999, £18.99 hardback, 279pp, ISBN 0471 98801 4.