Intellectual Capital: Chicken or Egg?

January 30, 2009

Today’s work has prompted me to wonder what came first the chicken or the egg, or in business terms what’s the most valuable asset for a business?

Is it intellectual capital, financial capital or technology?

I tend to feel that without the right personnel, capital and technology are not necessarily a business advantage.

How do business owners maximize profits without the right investments?  Personally, I value my brain trust beyond compare.  As useful as technology is, without the right advise at the right time, without the correct connections and the power of my intellect and my intellectual network bad decisions would have been the norm in this new endeavor.

I have had the pleasure of meeting many smart business people who know that without intellectual capital their money would not be a competitive edge.  Knowing that people understand the business at hand and think critically allows businesses to make informed decisions.

So why do business get blinded by gadgets and gizmos?  Shiny and new does not solve problems.  Technology only maximizes the time and knowledge base.  Without the right intellectual vetting how can you choose the right content management solution or invest in the most powerful hardware with a long shelf life?

While the chicken is necessary for the egg, the egg needs the chicken just as much.  In business, the right people choose the right technology and make the best investments for financial capital.  So invest in “key personnel” and get more bang with your assets.

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Posted by Answer Maven

Continuing Education

January 22, 2009

One of the things I have noticed during the past 8 months or so is that education opportunities abound from a variety of sources.  Personally, the best sourced for continuing education that assist in building my skills and business are from my professional organizations:  AIIP and SLA.

Later this morning I will be attending an AIIP webinar that is targeted to first year independent information professionals.  This afternoon I am attending a free webinar provided MKS and Ravenflow that discusses Content Management.

As I focus my business on content management and strategic information solutions, I find it important to expand my knowledge continually.  If I’m not aware of available solutions, how can I advise my clients on their best options?

Continuing Education also comes in the form of reading.  For the first time in my life, my reading is stretched beyond my comfort zone.  I read more technical info than ever before.  Understanding the nuances of how information solutions work will only assist me as I guide clients to the right source for their content management needs.

I’ve always done a great job of thinking broadly and strategically for information solutions and user needs.  Now I know it is important to stay abreast of the technical nuances as well.  Strategic thinking without technical ability results in time and effort wasted.   Wasted anything is the last thing I want for myself or my clients.

So my education continues. While I long for my own tech support department, I’m lucky to have colleagues who can provide assistance and advise as needed.  These colleagues offer layman’s term explanations for the gritty technical details that are just out of my grasp.

And I find that as the knowledge expands, those gritty details are understood more quickly and sometimes I don’t even have to call my tech support for assistance.  So, maybe I’ll learn enough to network my home and office computers in the next few months or build a network server that can be my data back-up.  If I can’t apply that technical knowledge directly, I will at least have learned the how-to and why behind the process and thus my strategic ability remains intact and ever-expanding.

Constance Ard January 22, 2009

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Posted by Answer Maven

CTO in the White Houe?

October 23, 2008

Under the Bush administration librarians found themselves suddenly struggling to access government documents that were readily available in the Clinton administration.  FOIA was a hot topic and wire-tapping was/is a reality upheld by courts with less than proper restrictions in some minds.

According to this blog post if Obama becomes President there will be a CTO.  That’s a great idea but where will the technology lead without a strategic plan for the management of the information all the broadband will provide access to?  Will this broadband benefit those who can’t and don’t already pay for it.

In Kentucky there is a project called ConnectKentucky which is a part of Connected Nation.  Learn more about Connection Nation here.  The technology solutions are already well underway, will a CTO help or hinder the progress already being made.

A bigger question is with the mass of information that is ultimately the “responsibility” of the President is the current structure suitable.  Has there been enough critical thought given to information management and sharing.  I mean after 9/11 we found that the various security agencies responsible for the nation’s protection were not sharing information well.

We know that improvements have occurred.  My curiosity is, with the multitude of agencies that are responsible for safety, health, finance, education and more is the highest office giving enough critical thought to strategic planning for information and content management?  Ideally, the strategy would result in business intelligence applications for information across all agencies that would positively affect regulations and policy to the benefit of the economy and overall health of the country.

Skeptical though I am of behemoth organizations successfully apply strategies to this positive effect, I think the ideal of a CTO is intriguing, just give the new CTO a spouse in office, I suggest a qualified CIO with a strong background in technology and information management.  For this great country technology is not enough, application of technology is required as well.

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Posted by Answer Maven

Info Pro’s and Strategic Planning

October 22, 2008

It’s been about a week since I posted anything new here on the blog.  That’s not because I’ve been totally lazy, it’s just that I don’t want to rehash library blog stuff, I have nothing worthwhile to add to the wisdom of the economic crisis and I haven’t had time to do much more than catch up on my reading.  I’ve been doing some writing on a few other blogs.  With that work and my desire to write something worth your time has caused a bit of quiet time at Answer Maven.

Last week, while Janice LaChance, CEO of Special Libraries Association was visiting Keeneland (and there is no better place to experience your first horse race, except perhaps somewhere in England or Ireland) we heard about a few iniatives that SLA was working on.  Janice has pushed SLA and its members for several years to speak about our work to C-Level executives. Information professionals should talk about their impact on organizational goals.  Use numbers, speak to the work being done that supports the goals of the organization and be professional and consistent.

A critical part of any organization is the need for strategic planning.  Executives who have IT, HR, CFO’s, CMO’s but not Information Professionals at the table will miss critical pieces of the strategic planning pie.  No individual, in any organization, has a better ability to blend their knowledge of technology, information management, organization needs, capabilities, and potential than a librarian or information professional.

If you want to impact your entire organization positively make sure you have all of the players at the table and let each one inform you about the impact their department has or or could have on the company goals.

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