They think computers will take up the slack. This is often not the case, Sassone says. In fact, Sassone studied 20 companies, none of which had optimal staffing. Usually, they had a surplus of managers. Sassone found an expensive tendency for staff professionals to teach themselves about computers and to perform their own computer support.
Companies can aid efficiency by adding computer support people to the staff.
Few people in business want to make decisions based on emotion. This gives them evidence that confirms or denies their gut feelings, and puts numbers on what they suspected. Competitive advantage will go to companies that provide exactly what their customers want at a low cost, says mechanical engineering graduate student Tim Simpson. He co-authored a chapter of the book with Mistree. For most people, I'd say it's the latter. . .