Q&A: Barbara Hirsh of NERA

Hirsh Discusses the Conference Board's Executive Action Report Underlining Info Pro Value

For over 90 years, The Conference Board (www.conference-board.org.) has created and disseminated knowledge about management and the marketplace to help businesses strengthen their performance. The Conference Board operates as a global independent membership organization working in the public interest. It publishes information, analysis and statistics, makes economics-based forecasts, assesses trends, and facilitates learning by creating dynamic communities of interest that bring together senior executives from around the world. A not-for-profit organization, The Conference Board brings respected economic and management experts together with experienced leaders in business, government and academia to create an unrivaled global community of leaders.

Most recently, the Conference Board issued an executive action report highlighting the importance of information professionals in a company. Barbara Hirsh, a council member and Director of Information Resources at NERA, a New York-based economic consulting group that doles advice to corporations, governments, law firms, regulatory agencies, trade associations, and international agencies, talked to LibGig about the report.

LibGig: First off, can you tell me a little about NERA?

Barbara Hirsh: NERA is an economic consulting group. We provide practical economic advice related to highly complex business or legal issues arising from competition, regulation, public policy, strategy, finance, and litigation.

LibGig: What type of consultants work there, and for which clients?

BH: Mostly PhDs in Microeconomics; there are 450 on staff. Our firm works with companies that are merging. We give economic analysis and litigation analysis during class actions and other cases. We advise services and utilities such as telecommunications, energy, gas, pharma companies. And we advise on intellectual property issues, multinational tax issues. anti-trust issues.

LG: Is it a private company?

BH: Yes. It's owned by Oliver Weinberg which is owned by Marsh.

LG: Before we get to the report, tell me how you got to where you are?

BH: After my MLS at Rutgers, I worked in academia. I was an information professional for a market research group after that, then worked for an investment banker and an accounting firm before NERA.

LG: So, the report... how do you become a council member, what were your goals with the report and what are the results so far?

BH: The council has 30 members, senior managers with global responsibilities. People who manage information centers, people in pharma, financial services, law industries, consultants, manufacturing plants... You submit an application to become a member. Basically, we wanted to reach executives about the value that information professionals bring to a firm. The report began as an informal chat during a meeting. We sat down and talked about the impact of information pros in a firm and how to reach executives, especially in a time like today, where companies need to downsize and streamline and often they look at information professionals as part of the overhead. But in reality, we are a very valuable part of any functioning company, across the board. We provide bottom line value, innovation, risk management expertise, talent management. We serve a major purpose in organizations and it is a challenge to make sure the world, and in particular, the executive levels of companies, gets the complexities of our business.

LG: Right. It's hard to sometimes put a dollar sign on your value.

BH: Right. Accurate information is often overlooked and not always embedded in a company's infrastructure. Building those relationships, building trust. The report is an illustration with information looking at exactly how we bring value to a given organization, and we did it because, plainly, we at the Conference Board were all concerned with companies eliminating libraries as "overhead" and "cost-cutting."

LG: So where are you now with the report?

BH: The report has been circulated to the firms we at the board work for, and in April we will regroup and discuss whom to send the report to then. My focus is in the information world, and our purpose with this report is to make sure we all understand the value of what we as information professionals do.

-Gabe Geltzer