I’ve been told that the Chinese word for ‘crisis’ is the same word they use for ‘opportunity’. Now I was born with a healthy level of skepticism, so I typically validate such things before I use them publicly. (God bless you, Snopes.com.) But I’m making an exception on this one and blindly assuming it’s true.

I do this not out of naïveté , but because I desperately want to believe this is true. I want to believe it because it implies that an entire ancient culture has long recognized one simple universal truth: every crisis is an opportunity.

Information lifecycle management is experiencing an existential crisis across the globe and in every industry, public and private. Information is being created at explosive levels posing greater and greater risks and inflicting higher and higher costs every day. The over-preservation of useless information is already the information technology challenge of our generation. It is at the root of every problem IT managers experience today. And to make matters worse, new technologies, like mobile applications, cloud computing and the so-called ‘Internet of Things,’ are about to make this look like the ‘Good Old Days.’

Please join me for the March 16^th ARMA NOVA Annual Seminar where I’ll present my keynote address, ‘The Disposition Imperative,’ explaining why the current over-preservation crisis is a once-in-a-career opportunity for every records management professional working today. You can register here.