Lost in the Crowd?

It's a tough business world out there. Even with the spate of mergers, takeovers, and downsizing that's happened, there's plenty of competition. In fact, it seems that the competition grows fiercer where the number of competitors grows smaller. All of us—and we're no different—look for newer and more innovative ways to get our message out to the consuming public.

Every company is about making money: profit. What builds profit is good; what doesn't, isn't. Lowering costs affects profit, but cost-cutting is not the same thing as increasing profit and shareholder value. We try to reduce our overhead—areas that seem only to add expense, not revenue. We talk about doing more with less, about working smarter, and about multi-tasking ourselves and our staff.

A Parable

Imagine an emergency service radio operator who has to cover four radio frequencies on a real-time basis while on duty. Problem Nr. 1: the operator has but two ears. A set of split-channel earphones allows the operator to "multi-task." Problem Nr. 2: there are four channels but only two can be heard at any given time. That radio operator may keep continuity on all assigned frequencies, but...the mind can really concentrate on only one distinct subject at a time.

There's a limit to efficiencies produced by multi-tasking

Your engineers or developers, for instance, may excel at their jobs but may not be the best writers. Engineering a product and designing its supporting documentation follow similar principles but require different skills and training.

Communication & Profit

Technical communication directly affects your staff, products, and profits. If you depend upon proposals to win new contracts, you need to communicate your concepts effectively to win new business. If you depend upon individual consumers to use your services, you need to attract them by communicating clearly the value of your service over that of your competitors. Every communication product you use contributes to your profits, either positively or negatively. Every marketing e-mail, brochure, flyer, newsletter, user guide, instruction set: everything you communicate affects your profit.

When you consider the role of technical communication and technical communicators in your enterprise, consider how they can help you increase your profit. Technical communicators are not the most important members of your team, but they are no less important than marketers, engineers, developers, or administrators. Because communication is so vital to your success, skilled professional technical communicators are important to you and your business.

It’s all about profit.