Many managers expect the point where they could track information on its intangible assets as easily as they control the cash flow and market share. They were looking forward to be able to track customer satisfaction, innovation and skill levels of employees with real-time data. Thanks to advances in information technology, the day is almost here. However, the author argues that the few leaders even began to scratch the surface in the opportunities that this information offers. Managers must determine which part of the business they want to know that it will lead to the answer, and how well the information and technology (including text and data mining) can answer their questions. The companies get information on intangible assets for the rather narrow application (for example, to analyze data on customer preferences to increase the profitability of individual customer segments). But managers want to get the maximum value will want to use this information more securely. They must consider many factors: the nature of the questions they want to answer, the quality of available data, they need to use technology and to what extent are the main changes in the process will affect the organization of "Hide
By Wlodek Zadrozny, Zadrozny Wlodek Source: MIT Sloan Management Review 7 pages. Publication Date: 01 Oct 2006. Prod. #: SMR230-PDF-ENG
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