Noise In Shipping And Trade Tech:
An Information Firehose Problem Or Noisy Decision-Making?

By Sal Yazbeck
February 4, 2026

I recently came across a book review that talks about “noise” in company related decision-making. It interested me particularly because when I talk about noise in a business context, I am referring to industry noise. That mass information within the B2B cross-border shipping and trade ecosystem coming at us from a variety of angles – developments in cargo tracking, TradeTech, FinTech, new business partnerships, products or services releases, the regulatory environment, and so on. And it comes from press releases, news articles, industry conferences, blogs, and many other sources.

A universe of information that can be likened to “drinking from the firehose” – a flow of information too much to absorb. What the book review seems to be referring to though, in a broader sense, is a human behavioral issue. That human “bias” that’s introduced in judgment during professional decision-making.

What intrigued me was what it seemed to be, we’re looking at noise from opposite angles. Here’s what I mean.

The Information Firehose

Navigating a noisy information environment can be like navigating a messy room. Without proper organization and alignment, both are difficult to maneuver, and therefore, present a motivation for change. For its part, engaging in industry noise reduction is a first step in a process that helps establish a personal level of perspective.

In the graphic above, the funnel references a deductive approach towards refining perspective, one situated between a high “level of industry noise” on the left, and a “new level of perspective” on its right. Within the funnel is a multi-step process that firstly helps individuals and teams build a shared industry ecosystem understanding (a general perspective) as a baseline foundation, followed by another phase of identifying business-specific context and purposely narrowing focus. It’s a process that helps professionals build situation clarity and reach a new level of personal perspective. The outcome of which, what I refer to as a “Power Perspective”, can serve as a structured basis for the next phase, supporting informed decision-making.

Noisy Decision-Making

In contrast, the noise the book review references comes at this next stage of the process – decision-making. As it elaborates, noise here is the human bias introduced in professional decision-making, a part, it states, of what makes us human and one which comes with potential downsides –  particularly when considering the potential steep costs of noisy decisions on the organization. It mentions that, while there’s no simple solution, in order to reduce bias in decision-making, or apply “decision-hygiene” as the book refers to it, suggestions include “using shared scales to ground individual judgments”, and “breaking up complex judgments into more comprehensible components.”

A Plausible Connection?

Considering that analysis, and to rise a bit above the trees, my view on business decision-making is that it’s best left to the organization as no one knows its business better than the organization itself. Though one interesting observation may be plausible based on the book review, and that is that the noisy information ecosystem may very well contain individual pieces of those biases, further raising complexity within this universe of information.

For background, the insights presented here on industry noise reduction and gaining business situation clarity come from the “Path To Power Perspective™”, the first two stages of a four stage B2B roadmap I’ve developed for cross-border shipping and trade professionals who would benefit from developing a business and tech ecosystem foundation and attaining business-specific situation clarity.

The outcome of which is attaining a Power Perspective – a personalized informed opinion level that can help simplify organizational decision-making, and apply solutions that help reinforce market standing with customers.

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