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15
W
hen it comes to data, law firms will
often tell you that after their lawyers,
information and their collective
intelligence is their greatest asset. But what exactly
does that mean? And, how do law firms treat data
differently than other assets, if at all?
If you can get a hold of a law firm balance sheet,
you won't see their data or intellectual property listed
as an asset. While certainly a firm's knowledge is of
significant value, accepted accounting principles don't
allow for it to be listed as a financial asset, intangible
or otherwise.
I managed to dig up one rather large firm's
balance sheet that valued a soon-to-be revenue-
generating software project as an intangible asset.
That's a start. But it was the application destined for
monetization itself that was listed, not the underlying
data that fuels the application, nor the extremely
valuable information generated day in and day out by
the firm's practice.
Enter Infonomics
The ideas about information assets, valuation,
monetization and the implications are the crux of
an MIT Symposium presentation on Infonomics
1
,
which inspired me to search out the book by the same
name
2
. Doug Laney, formerly of Deloitte and Gartner,
dives deep into the theory, practice and opportunity
of treating data as an economic asset. He is the first to
point out this discrepancy of not including information
on financial statements.
B Y B A R R Y S O L O M O N
What If We Managed
Data Like a True
Economic Asset?
