"Puzzles and Mysteries"

Author Malcom Gladwell uses the Enron debacle to highlight the differences between two types of inquiry paradigms: one that treats an inquiry task as a "puzzle" and one that treats it as a "mystery." We feel that Gladwell's analysis accurately highlights different schools of thought with respect to business intelligence. Those who see research as a "puzzle" often miss the most salient and relevant pieces of information or insight they need to gain because they have proscribed the "missing piece" they are looking for. Those who see research as solving a "mystery," — the exercise of deciphering and discerning the salient meaning from a large amount of data available in the environment — stand to dsicover rich meaning in the connections between people and drivers within their sector. We believe our strength is in understanding how to manage the latter exercise which is most relevant to the type of atmosphere in which most organizations operate today.