The Attention Economy : Understanding the New Currency of Business - Hardcover

Davenport, Thomas H.; Beck, John C.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 157851441X ISBN 13: 9781578514410

Publisher: Harvard Business Review Press, 2001

Synopsis

In today's information-flooded world, the scarcest resource is not ideas or even talent: it's attention. In this groundbreaking book, Thomas Davenport and John Beck argue that unless companies learn to effectively capture, manage, and keep it--both internally and out in the marketplace--they'll fall hopelessly behind.

In The Attention Economy, the authors also outline four perspectives on managing attention in all areas of business:
1) measuring attention
2) understanding the psychobiology of attention
3) using attention technologies to structure and protect attention
4) adapting lessons from traditional attention industries like advertising

Drawing from exclusive global research, the authors show how a few pioneering organizations are turning attention management into a potent competitive advantage and recommend what attention-deprived companies should do to avoid losing employees, customers, and market share. A landmark work on the twenty-first century's new critical competency, this book is for every manager who wants to learn how to earn and spend the new currency of business.

About this title

About the Author

Thomas H. Davenport is the Director of the Accenture Institute for Strategic Change and a Distinguished Scholar in Residence at Babson College. He is the author of Mission Critical: Realizing the Promise of Enterprise Systems, Process Innovation: Reengineering Work through Information Technology, and the co-author of Working Knowledge: How Organizations Manage What They Know.

John C. Beck is a Senior Research Fellow at the Accenture Institute for Strategic Change and a Visiting Professor at the Anderson School of Management at UCLA.

From the Back Cover

"In a world where hyper-speed, disruptive technologies, great new apps, and too many Emails overwhelm, where DSL has replaced LSD as an escape, and where every waking minute is clogged with information overload, what's a leader to do? First, take a deep breath. Second, read Tom Davenport and John Beck's The Attention Economy. You'll breathe-and lead-a lot easier."
-Warren Bennis, Distinguished Professor of Business, University of Southern California, and Author, Managing the Dream

"Tom Davenport and John Beck bring a sharp eye to one of the greatest challenges facing CEOs: ensuring that key issues are at the front-of-mind of the organization. The Attention Economy shows you how to tune out the unnecessary and tune into what's most important."
-Gregory L. Summe, Chairman and CEO, PerkinElmer, Inc.

"As we drown in a sea of information and consistently fail to get our messages across, we all know intuitively that the attention economy is real. This insightful and informative book explains the mechanisms of attention and offers pragmatic techniques for managing your attention and capturing that of others."
-John Seely Brown, Former Director, Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), and Coauthor, The Social Life of Information

"After reading The Attention Economy, it is clear to me that attention isn't really 'paid'-it's either given as a loan or managed as an investment. For companies that appreciate those distinctions, Davenport and Beck's book is an essential management resource."
-Michael Schrage, Research Associate, MIT Media Lab, and Author, Serious Play

"Davenport and Beck have written the first full exposition of how attention works in the knowledge economy. A stimulating and fun read."
-Larry Prusak, Executive Director, IBM Institute for Knowledge Management, and Coauthor, In Good Company

Reviews

The most significant problem in today's business world is not competition, lack of skilled employees or an uncertain economy, but an attention deficit, declare two consultants affiliated with the Accenture Institute for Strategic Change. Put simply, with all the noise from meetings, faxes, voice mail and e-mail, it's hard to get consumers', employees', stockholders' or executives' undivided attention anymore. The companies that will succeed in the future, the authors state, will focus their efforts on this problem, instead of on conventional approaches to time management. Using research from such fields as television programming, Davenport (a distinguished scholar in residence at Babson College and author of Mission Critical) and Beck (a professor at UCLA's Anderson School of Management) explain how to attack "organizational ADD" on both an individual and corporate level. In one example, the authors point to an executive who postponed certain technological initiatives, noting that there were already too many demands on the company's attention. Though some of the writing is pedantic, the authors accurately describe corporate life and deliver a worthy message, along with short, practical sidebars. (June)Forecast: The authors' fresh message and an attention-getting jacket along with a $100,000 advertising campaign (including ads in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, Business Week and PW), 20-city radio satellite tour and author speaking engagements will help this book capture the business world's attention.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Leadership 101: Managing Customer Attention

By Thomas H. Davenport and John C. Beck

For several years we have been investigating how the boom of information technology-and the concomitant "info glut"-has affected corporate leadership. Our research has convinced us that attention is the scarce resource in today's economy and that it can be managed. And corporate leaders that understand the six types of attention not only "know their customers" better, but they can give their organization a competitive advantage.

Leaders need to manage not only the amount of attention but also the type of attention (see figure 1) your customers give to your company and, where possible, to your competitors. Using an attention-measuring tool we developed called AttentionScape1, leaders can understand what kind of attention their customers gave to their company versus their competitors. We have found that company leaders are often shocked to discover the type and amount of attention their competitors received from key customers.

Once companies understand where and on what their customers focus their attention, leaders can provide direction to better manage customer attention by adapting attention tactics to the marketing and customer service strategy. For instance, if a key customer is increasing the amount of voluntary attention it gives to your competitors, it may be because the customer is beginning to shop around. One way of attracting the customer's attention back to your company might be to add front-of-the-mind attention tactics by introducing new aspects to the customer relationship routine, such as special offers.

At any given moment, the attention of customers and employees can be described as one of six different types of attention; all six types of attention can happen simultaneously. Each type of attention has a paired opposite:

* Aversive and attractive: Aversive attention is paid when people are afraid of the consequences of not paying attention. Attractive attention is given to elements people like and expect to be pleasant.

* Captive and voluntary: People pay voluntary attention to things they find innately interesting, but attention is held captive when an item is thrust upon them.

* Back-of-mind and front-of-mind: highly focused front-of-mind attention might be paid to a conference call while paying back-of-mind attention to checking e-mail. Front-of-mind attention is necessary for learning new tasks or information, but when these become more familiar they are often relegated to back-of-mind attention.

Our research reveals that attention is a valuable lens through which to view the role of corporate leadership. Attention is the scarce resource of our age-and a resource innately tied to what the human beings in the organization actually do. Leaders who understand and manage it are a long stride ahead of their competitors.

Edition details

• Publisher: Harvard Business Review Press
• Publication date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 157851441X
• ISBN 13: 9781578514410
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 272