This book choice post first appeared on the Major Projects Knowledge Hub on September 4, 2019. Liz will be posting book choices to the Major Projects Knowledge Hub throughout the month of September 2019.
Greetings, all! Jonathan Norman has invited me to share some book choices with you this month. In hopes that they will spark some new ideas for your work, my first choice is:
In his book, Laney delivers a set of new ideas, frameworks, evidence and approaches adapted from other disciplines to administer, wield and understand the value of information.
“Infonomics is the theory, study and discipline of asserting economic significance to information. It strives to apply both economic and asset management principles and practices to the valuation, handling and deployment of information assets.”
Specifically, Laney’s work articulates ways that infonomics can help organizations to better develop, sell, and market these assets in order to transform the enterprise altogether. Laney directs this content to CEO’s, CIO’s, CFO’s, CDO’s and other information and analytics leaders who intend to help their organization to become more infosavvy. Infonomics provides the business rationale for applying infosavvy practices, methods, analysis and case studies of how information and project data can be monetized to increase competitive capabilities.
I often refer people to Infonomics (when the classic KM question arises on the value of KM practices) specifically because Laney demonstrates that quantifying and qualifying information assets can be done. He includes real-world examples, frameworks and practical advice. While his business case focuses on data and information assets, I view the book as readily applicable to knowledge, expertise and deep smarts. Infonomics also examines the negative consequences for enterprises who do not cultivate, curate and operationalize these assets. The book provides clarity on what’s at stake if project knowledge or information assets are not protected, understood or shared.
I’m a big fan of this book because it hails directly from the economic and business analysis viewpoint. No matter what your role or project, everyone can experience some ah-hah! realizations applicable to business processes and project knowledge assets for infosavvy gains. While this book concentrates on applying infosavvy practices to information and data, to my way of thinking, the ideas naturally extend those economic and strategic rationales for knowledge assets. As a knowledge and digital assets manager, I frequently come back to Laney’s book for reminders of the business reasons, rewards or risks associated with NOT being an infosavvy organization.