Overcoming the Bandwidth-Fidelity Dilemma

More granular business intelligence is the hidden value behind having decentralized ESG metrics, even as it creates reporting challenges.

Astronomers are familiar with the Bandwidth-Fidelity Dilemma; the wider you look into the universe, the less detail any particular object has. The more you focus on a specific item, such as a planet, the narrower the view. The same can be true of any measurement or metric, you can either concentrate on detail or the overall picture.

But there is an alternative, using composite of images that are focused on small portion of the overall and putting them together to build a mosaic that forms an overall image that does not sacrifice detail for the needed overall perspective.

This is a hidden strength behind the challenge of ESG metrics; which companies often struggle to aggregate and report. By having different portions of the business focus on their particular area, it allows for the needed granularity to extract meaningful business intelligence that reveals business risks or opportunities.

As long as a company is focused exclusively on ESG reporting (compliance) it may lose sight of the value of knowing things such as which equipment is functioning optimally, which physical assets are most resilient in the face of weather events, which suppliers and supply routes are the most reliable or which teams are high functioning and which ones are routinely losing talent that the organization needs.

This article inspired by a conversation with Sri Ramamoorti