Corporate Information Needs
At this year's SLA conference one of the hot topics was "embedded librarianship" — that is, working as an information pro for an organization, but not necessarily being attached to or affiliated with a corporate library or business information center.
Sometimes info pros end up as embedded librarians because their organization did away with the organization library, but were smart enough to realize the brain power of the library's staffers was too valuable to lose. Other times it's because staffers were recruited out of the library to work directly, "on the ground," with an operational team (for example, the product development team). Or it might be that an ops team was simply savvy enough to realize how much they'd benefit from the research/writing/information organization skills of an info pro, and hired directly for that skill set.
Regardless of the path taken to get there, embedded librarianship offers an interesting and potentially growing career opportunity for info pros, one that allows them to contribute directly to team and organizational goals (and make visible their value to the bottom line).
However, when discussing this opportunity with students recently, it became clear that unless you're pretty familiar with how organizations operate, it can be a challenge to figure out exactly where your skills can add value. Within an organization, who needs what information, and how do they use it? Knowing this basic information will be critical to being able to plug in and add value, so here is a very rudimentary overview of how most organizations organize themselves, what departments do what work, and the information they need to do it. Keep in mind that every organization is different, so this should be considered simply a guide rather than a roadmap to a specific company's organizational layout.
Human Resources. Works with: department heads, legal department, contract trainers, benefits providers and vendors. Accountable for: aligning workforce abilities w/ company needs; recruitment and retention; providing appropriate learning opportunities to grow workforce; creative and managing competitive benefits and compensation programs; establishing contract and outsourced/off-shored employee relationships. Key issues: legal issues related to personnel matters; staying current w/ HR, T&D, benefits, and compensation best practices; advances in recruiting, hiring, and compensation practices. Information needs: best practices, benchmarks; vendor/provider background research, evaluations, comparisons; training and development resources.
Information Systems ("IT"). Works with: department heads; legal department (compliance); contract programmers. Accountable for: aligning enterprise IT infrastructure with company needs and strategy; allocating budget to reflect often-competing strategic priorities; evaluating new technologies in terms of long-term enterprise needs; creating new product IT, managing contractors responsible for creating new product IT, or managing relationship with vendor partner responsible for creating new product IT; supporting legal requirements (records retention policies). Key issues: managing unrealistic executive expectations; staying current on emerging technologies, bugs, and applications; understanding enterprise goals in order to support them via IT; getting other departments to understand and support IT roles and activities. Information needs: staying apprised of emerging information technologies; vendor/provider background research, evaluations, comparisons.
Sales and Marketing. Works with: product developers; engineering and development; finance (for product pricing issues); corporate communications (press releases). Accountable for: performing market research, market segmentation; creating and executing marketing and sales campaigns; documenting return-on-investment (ROI) of marketing campaigns; setting and meeting sales goals. Key issues: understanding characteristics of market opportunity; understanding customers' purchase drivers, segments; understanding competitive landscape; organizing and managing a high-quality customer care program. Information needs: market, customer, and competitor information (includes demographics, purchase drivers, product response, trends and changing patterns); sales data; effective sales channels and approaches; statistical information; market research — characteristics of potential opportunities; call center and customer service best practices, benchmarking.
Finance. Works with: department heads and key company strategists and decision-makers; legal dept (Sarbanes-Oxley, compliance issues); outside and internal auditors; investors and industry analysts; SEC (if public). Accountable for: integrity of company's financial reporting; integrity of company's financial operations; budget data; industry comparisons and ratios. Key issues: legal issues related to financial requirements; financial strength of organization relative to similar companies; competitive intelligence re potential joint ventures partners, acquisitions, or hostile takeovers. Information needs: internal financial performance data; budget data; industry comparisons and ratios; competitive intelligence of a financial nature; market trends (for financial forecasting); regulatory or market developments that may impact revenues.
Engineering and Production. Works with: product managers; sales and marketing; suppliers. Accountable for: creating products within technical and budget specifications; delivering products on time; using best practices and processes to maximize product's consumer benefit while minimizing product production costs; supply-chain management; creative and managing competitive benefits and compensation programs; establishing contract & outsourced/off-shored employee relationships. Key issues: maximum-efficiency, minimum-cost production processes; optimizing supply-chain management processes (vendor relations and specifications). Information needs: best practices, benchmarks; vendor/provider/supplier background research, evaluations, comparisons; advances in engineering and materials sciences.
Legal. Works with: department heads, especially on contractual agreements; finance; HR; corporate communications (press releases). Accountable for: ensuring company compliance with all legal/regulatory restrictions; ensuring legality of hr policies; ensuring that contracts are appropriate and not damaging to the organization; working with outside counsel in the event of a lawsuit. Key issues: legal issues related to personnel matters; regulatory requirements and proposed regulations; keeping the company out of lawsuits. Information needs: ongoing updating regarding legal and regulatory changes; legal decisions and proceedings, current and background; any pending SEC issues.
Corporate Communications. Works with: department heads; legal dept; sales & marketing; "visible" executives making public statements. Accountable for: creating and placing external messages to "brand and position" the company, rather than the product (which is sales & marketing); communicating with the organization's various constituencies, including investors, the media, and competitors; building and protecting the company's reputation in the marketplace; managing public-relations crises. Key issues: controlling messages and communication processes; avoiding public-relations disasters; creating positive views about the company and its products; positioning the company and its leadership as capable, innovative, and expert. Information needs: quotable statistics, background information, competitive intelligence; media research; issues research; speech/article backgrounders.
Be sure to keep in mind that every organization has information needs specific to its business and the products and services it delivers. Just consider this a starter "map" to get you thinking about where and how your information skills could add value within your current organization or one you'd like to work for.