If information overload was a problem almost four decades ago, it is even more of a blight now — and the very tools that executives use to funnel, filter and distil important information are making the problem worse. Bain & Company has estimated that executives in the 1970s had to deal with fewer than 1,000 phone calls, telexes and telegrams a year from people outside their company. These days, 30,000 external communications clog managers' inboxes annually.