Geographers Understand Business Better
Oh really? Yes, really!
This is my argument, and I’m sticking with it.
Oh? You thought Geography was the study of the different countries in the world, their capitals, their imports and exports? Ummm, that’s called memorization, not Geography.
Geography is:
Understanding patterns across space.
Analyzing and explaining the relationships between those patterns.
Let’s analyze a map from my Master’s thesis. I will tell you only three things about it:
It is a map of Baton Rouge, Louisiana,
In the early-1990’s.
The lines are transportation routes.
Without telling you any more about the map or what the symbols represent, what patterns do you see (answers in the footnote)?1
Did you see them? Noooowwww, let’s talk about why they exist - the analytical part, the relationship piece.
This is a map of 24-hour businesses in Baton Rouge, Louisiana in 1992-1993. Ahhhh, okay! That makes more sense, right?
Let’s break it down pattern-by-pattern.
Pattern #1: Dots are along transportation routes, especially the major ones.
Fewer businesses are open at night than during the daytime. Locating along major transportation routes with increased traffic provides easier access and visibility to potential customers.
Pattern #2: Dots are located at intersections.
The likelihood of attracting a customer is increased, since the location is at the intersection of two transportation routes, rather than one.
Pattern #3: Dots are clustered together.
With fewer businesses open at night, co-location of non-competing businesses provides synergy. Maybe a customer needs both gas and groceries at 3:30am!
One cluster (in the southwest section of the map) seems to defy Patterns #1 and #2. That cluster is where Louisiana State University is located.
Voila! Two variables (LSU & 24-hour businesses) in a pattern, across space, and a reasonable explanation to their relationship.
College kids stay up late and need things late at night.
Yay! You did it! You saw patterns across space and you understand the relationships between those patterns. Let’s keep going!
Central to the study of Geography is spatial thinking.
What is a spatial thinker? Easy. Someone who can visualize space (as in “lay of the land”, not “outer”), locations, objects, their dimensions, and their relationships all in their minds!
According to Wikipedia, Spatial Intelligence is
an area in the theory of multiple intelligences that deals with spatial judgment and the ability to visualize with the mind's eye. It is defined by Howard Gardner as a human computational capacity that provides the ability or mental skill to solve spatial problems of navigation, visualization of objects from different angles and space, faces or scenes recognition, or to notice fine details. Gardner further explains that Spatial Intelligence could be more effective to solve problems in areas related to realistic, thing-oriented, and investigative occupations.
Now, we’re at the heart (jeezum, I didn’t mean that!) of why Geographers do business better!
They quickly and easily assess the landscape of a business, they see patterns across it and within it.
Then they analyze the why, the relationships among and across a business. They understand what is working for the business, what isn’t serving it, and where there are absences or voids in its operations.
They understand how the individual parts affect the whole, and how the whole affects individual parts. It’s a matter of zoom level.
This kind of business understanding isn’t unique to Geographers necessarily. But spatial intelligence is. And at its core, that means that anyone who thinks geographically is thinking spatially, and therefore is equipped with the capacity to see a business differently, from all zoom levels, angles, and operations.
“We found that it’s easy to teach a Geographer about business. But, it’s really difficult to teach a business person how to think like a Geographer.” Dr. Jim Root during my interview with Thompson Associates (1997).
Do you think spatially?
Answers
Dots are along transportation routes, especially the major ones.
Dots are located at intersections.
Dots are clustered together.
I feel like embracing a car-free lifestyle has helped me develop a kind of spatial sense in my later years. Thinking about what's walkable in cities I'm visiting for the first time, clicking around maps of neighborhoods, noticing what kinds of businesses open in those neighborhoods: I do all these things on a purely hobby/amateur level and I enjoy thinking about it.