Asset management laid the foundations of modern society

And how, in six thousand years, we have learned nothing

Written text is the single most important building block of modern society. Without it, we would live in a very different world, as it enables knowledge to be shared far more efficiently than oral tradition ever could.

Human memory is notoriously limited. Around 6,000 years ago in Mesopotamia, this limitation led to the development of written symbols. As agriculture tied people to permanent settlements, animals and tools became essential. Before long, memory alone was no longer sufficient to keep track of who owned what. Disputes and resentment were almost certainly inevitable.

The need to manage assets therefore gave rise to one of humanity’s most important inventions. Six thousand years later, that same invention has enabled artificial intelligence, streaming services, the internet, footprints on the Moon, and the plays of Shakespeare.

How the need for control was forgotten

The development of writing propelled technological progress into entirely new dimensions. Yet we still struggle with the original problem that it should have solved: asset management.

Progress has brought us to a point where we are, quite literally, drowning in equipment and possessions. Particularly in organisations and the public sector, we find ourselves in much the same position as a Mesopotamian farmer in 4000 BCE. The difference is that today we lose track not of livestock or tools, but of AV equipment, laboratory instruments, presentation technology, furniture, or vehicles among other assets.

We fail to manage our assets, and as a result we acquire more. Because we do not know what we own, we cannot make effective use of it. You can already see the absurd vicious circle this creates. Unnecessary purchases drain both the environment and organisational budgets.

Curiously, this is not always seen as a serious problem. In fact, legislation and accounting practices often reinforce unsustainable consumption. Assets recorded as investments are depreciated according to a depreciation plan, regardless of whether the equipment remains perfectly usable after that period. Once an asset is fully depreciated in the accounts, information about it is rarely available anywhere.

In addition, many organisations record all equipment valued below €10,000 as direct costs. Over the course of a year, this can amount to a substantial pile of untracked assets—rarely catalogued in any meaningful way.

The Mesopotamian farmer would be astonished

Of course, many conscientious individuals do try to keep lists of company assets. But these are typically scattered across Excel files, paper documents, and people’s memories. No one has a complete overview, let alone clear responsibility for the equipment.

The Mesopotamian farmer would be astonished. Have we really learned nothing in six thousand years? He wanted to know what he owned—why don’t we, when we have vastly more assets than he ever did?

At Trail, we have been promoting a culture of sustainable asset management for fifteen years. During that time, we have seen many organisations begin to do things better, moving away from Excel spreadsheets and institutional memory towards modern, systematic asset management.

Asset management created the conditions for the development of modern civilisation. Surely it is time to make asset management a recognised part of modern civilisation once again.

This article draws on Irene Vallejo’s book "Papyrus"