Better Roads Digital Magazine
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/91850
on record | by Richard Ries Reducing uncertainty T We can't remove all the un- certainty from your business life, but through the Spec Guide we can provide you with the information you need to make informed decisions. he best use of the Spec Guide is as a tool to remove uncertainty from your life. That's a critical step for staying solvent in a world where uncertain- ty has become commonplace. At the beginning of our econom- ic implosion in 2008, there was un- certainty about the depth and dura- tion of the downturn. Now there's uncertainty about when the recov- ery will take place or if indeed it ever will to the levels previously seen; is this the new normal? Uncertainty has become so prev- alent that entire fields of study are centered upon it. The uncertainty principle of quantum mechanics says that you can know the posi- tion of a subatomic particle and the momentum (mass times velocity) of that particle, but the more cer- tain you are of one factor, the less certain you can be of the other. Uncertainty has been the subject of several books such as The Future of Everything: The Science of Predic- tion by mathematician David Orrell, published in February 2008. In his book Orrell argues that nothing can be predicted with accuracy because as things change there are reac- tions that we can't anticipate and those reactions create model error. He uses the unpredictability of the weather, human health and eco- nomics as examples. Mere months after Orrell's book was published we entered an economic environ- ment few foresaw. Imagine how this uncertainty affects equipment manufacturers. Their ability to remain in business depends upon having the right machines with the right features in the right quantities at the right times at the right places and at the right price. How do you do that when what is "right" remains so uncertain? As you can see from this edition of the Spec Guide, manufacturers have taken varying approaches to being right. There are lots of new models. There are lots of changes to existing models; some of those changes were necessitated by the expansion of emissions regulations into more horsepower categories. And there are many models un- changed from last year; some have remained unchanged for several years. We can't remove all the uncer- tainty from your business life, but through the Spec Guide we can provide you with the information you need to make informed deci- sions about the equipment you use. 2 October 2012 Better Roads Spec Guide