Information Driven Management: The New, but Little Perceived, Business Zeitgeist

For the last decade and a half the business community has seen what appears to be one fad after another. To a surprising (and greatly under-recognized) degree, however, those fads, that these enthusiasms are facets of, constitute one major theme – the importance of information and its skillful use to the success of the modern corporation. Librarianship is about the organization and the use of information. The overlap between librarianship and that skillful use of information by the organization should be obvious, but it isn’t, at least, to the business community. This article reviews twenty-one concepts referred to as fads and enthusiasms above, and shows how they do indeed constitute a logical whole. It argues that there has been a classic case of failing to see the forest through the trees. Further, it proposes that not only can this whole be identified, but that specific regions within this whole can be identified. The article concludes that recognizing this provides a major opportunity for the information professional.