I met Vivek Ranadivé some years ago, not long after our companies started doing business together. In getting to know him better, I also found some interesting parallels between our mutual experiences as entrepreneurs.

Both of us built businesses around a simple concept that could be used to great effect in solving a complex problem. FedEx used the hub-and-spoke concept to solve the inefficiencies of point-to-point shipping while Vivek used the notion of a general integration software layer to solve the inefficiencies of point-to-point connections between the software applications that run most companies.

I believe Vivek has it right in thinking that the information that drives business today can be harnessed to allow a new level of foresight, especially when we are able to analyze that information in real time and detect meaningful patterns before they become problems or lost opportunities.

We at FedEx learned long ago that our business depends on real-time monitoring, performance measurement and rapid problem resolution. Today, virtually all businesses are driven by similar imperatives and need to know more about their operations more quickly. The Power to Predict talks about taking the next step by using a continuous information flow to literally “see around the corner.” This concept will become an increasingly critical element of both strategy formulation and operational execution.

Most companies today are forced by competitive pressures to develop and adjust strategies almost continuously. It is much harder now to conceive a long-range plan and simply execute it to completion. Successful modern enterprises must often adjust their plans in real time to capitalize on the continuously changing environment, to take advantage of new opportunities as they arise and to avoid unforeseen pitfalls. Companies have always had to be nimble to succeed, but the imperative to become proactive gets stronger each day as business becomes more global and threats increase. Holding on to a competitive edge means staying one step ahead, and the more reliably one can predict the next step is often the difference between success and failure.

In the case of operational execution, the new challenge is not simply satisfying customer desires but accurately predicting what customers want before they know they want it! This means proactively ensuring customer satisfaction by making the buying experience predictably positive. At FedEx this means having the ability to update customers on the location of their shipments before they ask. We want to know as much as possible about each and every transaction so we can ensure delivery as promised and keep customers informed on a real-time basis.

The next step is to predict service disruptions before they occur, so we can re-route shipments or notify the customer as early as possible of any delay.

In the future, every company must be able to recognize what is coming early enough to take evasive action or steer toward an emerging opportunity. A continuous process of striving to extend one's field of view - as a pilot relies on radar for safe navigation - will be needed to see what's ahead. While no one can fully predict the future, information can be used to improve foresight on an ongoing basis. The Power to Predict challenges managers to think about the use of technology and information to augment historical analysis and business intelligence to produce better results.