In the late 1950s, the United States invited its top test pilots to apply to become the nation’s first astronauts. As memorialized in the book and movie The Right Stuff, each then had to decide whether to transition into an uncertain-yet-vaguely-familiar new career or continue along their present path. Some made the move and became famous; others didn’t and largely faded into history.

Today, you are standing at a similar crossroads. Whereas the pilots of yesteryear had to decide whether to take their aviation skills and adapt them to space flight, you must choose whether to take your information management expertise and apply it to all of your organization’s content – regardless of data type, format, delivery medium, department, or location.

Follow this trajectory and you’ll push the envelope toward Information Governance, and position yourself as a Very Important Person in your enterprise. Don’t, and you’ll likely spend your days in an informational silo in a corner of the organizational chart.

This is true whether you’re in records, compliance, IT, legal, or any other business function charged with the “care and feeding” of business-critical information. My question for you is a simple one: