Policy on entropy
Entropy is really a scientific term, to do with energy.
It's a measure of disorder. High entropy means a high degree
of disorder. But it's also a useful concept in a wider
sense. Businesses have to be very conscious of disorder,
because putting and keeping things in order has a cost.
Some businesses have what might be called a "high entropy"
policy. If you are prepared to pay a solicitor
£300 an hour (plus tax) to deal with a dispute, they will probably
be ready to cope, at your expense, with a certain amount of
disorder, in the form of muddle and conflict about the facts of the
dispute and what you want to achieve, in the course of bringing
their professional skills to bear on the problem.
Budget airlines, in contrast, tend to pursue a "low entropy"
policy. Their prices are ultra-competitive. They can't afford
disorder, and they suppress it by making customers use
carefully-designed online systems to book flights.
PRS is somewhere between these two extremes, but is certainly
closer to the budget airline than the solicitor. We
provide specialised services at very modest cost - which is
popular. But it follows that we are a relatively
low-entropy business. Because of the cost of disorder, we have to
limit the amount we deal with in the day-to-day running of our
business. This is why, for example, we rely on our members and
insurance clients to read and understand the information on this
website for themselves, rather than expecting us to explain
everything to them individually; and also why we can't -
regrettably - respond to callers who don't seem to know why they
have tried to contact us (or even, in some cases, who they
are).
Thinking about entropy, and the cost of disorder, will help you
get the best out of all the businesses you deal with - including
this one.
Last Updated: 12 October 2011