George A. James - Smart Data. Enterprise Performance Optimization Strategy

The authors advocate attention to smart data strategy as an organizing element of enterprise performance optimization. They believe that “smart data” as a corporate priority could revolutionize government or commercial enterprise performance much like “six sigma” or “total quality” as organizing paradigms have done in the past. This revolution has not yet taken place because data historically resides in the province of the information resources organization. Solutions that render data smart are articulated in “technoid” terms versus the language of the board room. While books such as Adaptive Information by Pollock and Hodgson ably describe the current state of the art, their necessarily technical tone is not conducive to corporate or agency wide qualitative change.