- Records management doesn’t necessarily treat records as “assets”. More often they are treated as “liabilities” to be disposed of quickly as possible.
- There is a next level. That of CEO - where the information base of the organization is truly an asset used to drive service quality, growth, efficiency. This may overlap with your COO level - but to me it is stronger than just impacting the organization of work.
Where I see a problem with the whole information as assets discussion, is that no one is really interested in treating their information with the same kind of rigor that an accountant does.
The main reason I think we talk about information as an asset is to justify hoarding mountains of low quality garbage. It's a way of positioning the low quality garbage as valuable garbage without doing the work of valuing it - we're trying to co-opt some of the language of finance without co-opting the rigor. Information as asset is supposed to end the conversation - when it should start it - "I assert that the information we hold is an asset, therefore we can stop talking." What should follow that assertion is "OK it's an asset, what's your net present value, where are the positive cash flows I can expect etc. etc."
Information as asset really exists at stage 3 in the model for me. I haven't called it out because none of the really amazing CIOs that I know ever talk about information as an asset - they don't have to, it's obvious to absolutely everyone. I feel like there's a very zen state there where we all stop talking about information as an asset and just do things that make it quite obviously an asset - even if we don't give it the label. The great CIOs that I know just weem to wander around their organisation looking for places where slow or crap information is producing slow or crap results - and then they fix them.
For me, there is only one thing that's stronger than organising and managing work - and that's the decision about what we're going to organise and manage work for - which I see as the realm of the CEO.
At the COO level in this model, we're talking about an integrated discipline. The job is to improve the way the organisation organises itself - and that is significantly about how it records information. When I look at the work people do and how it's structured, it's records all the way down. We can't get two people to the same coffee shop a week from now without creating records to make sure it happens. That aspect of recorded information is (to me) the most valuable, and the least discussed or appreciated - and I'd put it at the COO level where it can be strategic and integrated with knowledge management and the 437 other disciplines it takes to do a good job of that role.
I’m afraid we find ourselves in rather tedious agreement here.
“What should follow that assertion is "OK it's an asset, what's your net present value, where are the positive cash flows I can expect etc. etc."” - Absolutely. I would actually like that discussion to happen. But the only time it really does is when IP is bought, sold or valued as part of a bigger transaction. The IC reporting work associated with Skandia in the late 90s died a death (or rather morphed into ESG) because no one acted on any of the reporting. It was window-dressing. I would love a CFO to come along and say: “Is all this stuff an asset, a liability, or an expense? And give me a believable method for establishing this” It feels analogous to some of the debates about brand valuation that have been occurring.
“The great CIOs that I know just weem to wander around their organisation looking for places where slow or crap information is producing slow or crap results - and then they fix them”
Which obviously prompts the question: How many great CIOs are there out there? How do we help the less than great become better?
“For me, there is only one thing that's stronger than organising and managing work - and that's the decision about what we're going to organise and manage work for - which I see as the realm of the CEO.”
Exactly. And IM should be playing in that space as well. Which is why I wanted it on your list!
Nice.
- Records management doesn’t necessarily treat records as “assets”. More often they are treated as “liabilities” to be disposed of quickly as possible.
- There is a next level. That of CEO - where the information base of the organization is truly an asset used to drive service quality, growth, efficiency. This may overlap with your COO level - but to me it is stronger than just impacting the organization of work.
Where I see a problem with the whole information as assets discussion, is that no one is really interested in treating their information with the same kind of rigor that an accountant does.
The main reason I think we talk about information as an asset is to justify hoarding mountains of low quality garbage. It's a way of positioning the low quality garbage as valuable garbage without doing the work of valuing it - we're trying to co-opt some of the language of finance without co-opting the rigor. Information as asset is supposed to end the conversation - when it should start it - "I assert that the information we hold is an asset, therefore we can stop talking." What should follow that assertion is "OK it's an asset, what's your net present value, where are the positive cash flows I can expect etc. etc."
Information as asset really exists at stage 3 in the model for me. I haven't called it out because none of the really amazing CIOs that I know ever talk about information as an asset - they don't have to, it's obvious to absolutely everyone. I feel like there's a very zen state there where we all stop talking about information as an asset and just do things that make it quite obviously an asset - even if we don't give it the label. The great CIOs that I know just weem to wander around their organisation looking for places where slow or crap information is producing slow or crap results - and then they fix them.
For me, there is only one thing that's stronger than organising and managing work - and that's the decision about what we're going to organise and manage work for - which I see as the realm of the CEO.
At the COO level in this model, we're talking about an integrated discipline. The job is to improve the way the organisation organises itself - and that is significantly about how it records information. When I look at the work people do and how it's structured, it's records all the way down. We can't get two people to the same coffee shop a week from now without creating records to make sure it happens. That aspect of recorded information is (to me) the most valuable, and the least discussed or appreciated - and I'd put it at the COO level where it can be strategic and integrated with knowledge management and the 437 other disciplines it takes to do a good job of that role.
I’m afraid we find ourselves in rather tedious agreement here.
“What should follow that assertion is "OK it's an asset, what's your net present value, where are the positive cash flows I can expect etc. etc."” - Absolutely. I would actually like that discussion to happen. But the only time it really does is when IP is bought, sold or valued as part of a bigger transaction. The IC reporting work associated with Skandia in the late 90s died a death (or rather morphed into ESG) because no one acted on any of the reporting. It was window-dressing. I would love a CFO to come along and say: “Is all this stuff an asset, a liability, or an expense? And give me a believable method for establishing this” It feels analogous to some of the debates about brand valuation that have been occurring.
“The great CIOs that I know just weem to wander around their organisation looking for places where slow or crap information is producing slow or crap results - and then they fix them”
Which obviously prompts the question: How many great CIOs are there out there? How do we help the less than great become better?
“For me, there is only one thing that's stronger than organising and managing work - and that's the decision about what we're going to organise and manage work for - which I see as the realm of the CEO.”
Exactly. And IM should be playing in that space as well. Which is why I wanted it on your list!
I probably need to go off and read this: https://www.gartner.com/en/publications/infonomics