The Attention Economy: Understanding the New Currency of Business
By Thomas H. Davenport and John C. Beck
Harvard Business School Press, 2001
ISBN 1-57851-441-X

Breadth of Audience: 2.12 (Fair)
Topical Utility: 2.29 (Fair)
Content Applicable: 2.58 (Good)
Writing Quality: 2.62 (Good)
Overall: 2.40 (Fair)

COMMENTS FROM THE REVIEWERS:

1. Attention Economy: As in the good, the bad, and the ugly. The Bad: Expectations were high for the content of a book written by two leading researchers from Accenture Institute for Strategic Change, part of the management consulting organization with more than 75,000 employees in 47 countries and current annual sales of $11.6 billion. These high expectations were not met as the text fails to provide any new valuable information. The Good: Some graphical insight is gained by visiting http://www.attentionbook.com/ for the AttentionScape drawing Web site (not mentioned in the text). By actually completing the map one better understands aversive versus attractive tasks attention: captive versus voluntary attention on one axis while the other axis displays front of mind versus back of mind (You get the picture?). Statistics on economy-related topics are provided throughout the text. The statistics could be used to substantiate hiring additional attention-freeing resources (secretaries) or support marketing budgets to actually pay for consumer attention. And The Ugly: "Attention Inertia" occurs as the text explains in an example of giving attention to a bad movie, similarly the text is read to the end, however no values could be identified. The book lacks in content freshness, for example, eyeball counting or measuring Web site stickiness is not where the business world focuses these days, or the fact that the portal search site list does not even mention Google. Attention is an activity that is inherently well understood and has been described at lengths by motivational behaviorists and organizational leaders alike. For example, we all know that if we receive information with our first name on it or if the information is very concise, we will likely "pay it" attention. The last chapter offers several predictions, here is one: It is likely that Attention Economy will grab the attention of many senior executives from tending to more "attention worthy" activities.

2. The Attention Economy addresses issues that are extremely important within businesses today. Attracting and focussing the attention of employees and attracting and keeping the attention of customers (or potential customers) is increasingly difficult with the barrage of information that faces these targets. I enjoyed the writing style used in the book. I did find, though, that the first couple of chapters were devoted to building a basis for later concepts using the advertising world as an example (of correct and incorrect methods). There was little in these first chapters that I found directly applicable to my work in engineering, so my interest lagged somewhat.

3. In the most recent years, we are experiencing a sort of paradox. On the one side, information, and above all, knowledge have become critical resources for most companies, and the capability to effectively use them has become a core competence. On the other side, to successfully manage the enormous amount of information and knowledge has become a more and more onerous burden. Therefore, we face another paradox: the more we enter a world in which information becomes the critical resource, the more our capability to manage attention fails. For this reason, as Davenport and Beck well emphasize, attention becomes a critical resource, probably more precious than information and knowledge. This is particularly true in the business world, in which attention, as a scarce resource, acquires value thus becoming, as the authors say, a sort of currency. Davenport and Beck argue that unless companies learn to effectively capture, manage, and keep it - both internally and out in the marketplace -they will fall irremediably behind. To tell the truth, the problem of the management of attention does not remain linked exclusively to the business world, but it becomes a problem that every day each of us is experiencing. Henceforth, the book by Davenport and Beck not only becomes a useful guide for business consultants and managers, but also for those who are victims of the stress coming from information overload. It is a surviving guide in the information world! This book has various merits. Probably, the more relevant merit is that of the great clarity, directness, and effectiveness of the simple and informal style that the two authors adopt to express concepts and argue the analysis they carry on. Not less important is the ability to stimulate further reflections on the issue of attention that the authors successfully transfer to the reader. In this view, in fact, the book represents a useful guide for the manager and the business consultant for a pragmatic experimentation within their work context. The authors indeed suggest four perspectives for 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, and 4) adapting lessons from traditional attention industries like advertising. Drawing from an intense global research experience, they show how presently only afew pioneering organizations are turning attention management into a competitive advantage. Finally, they recommend what attention-deprived companies should give to avoid losing employees, customers, and market share.

4. Attention is a limited resource, just as time is, according to the authors. Attention can be measured and managed. They claim that e-mail and Web advertisements steal our limited attention from really important issues in an organization. Therefore, the value of the right attention focus has to be recognized in organizations, and managed. Several examples from advertising and publishing industry are presented. Workers need both technological tools (e-mail filters) and information sorting people (secretaries) to survive the information flow.