Main idea

An audit engagement for a regional daily produces two things of a different nature. In the client's case, a decision record keeps every structuring recommendation with its alternatives, its reason, its conditions and what would make it obsolete — safely stored with the client's data. At firm level, atomic notes keep what the engagement taught, phrased to stand on their own, with no figures and no names: "a strict paywall holds when the readership is loyal and the news is hard to find elsewhere".

The former protect the memory of each engagement. The latter build the firm's knowledge, grow richer with every engagement and betray no client.

Why it matters

The separation resolves the dilemma between copying without reasons and starting from scratch: the why is kept where it is allowed to be, and what circulates is an idea, not data. The firm's capital is no longer the pile of reports but the reasoning it kept and what it managed to draw from it without carrying anything away.

Nuances and limits

Detaching an idea from its client takes rephrasing work; a note too close to the facts may still let the client be recognized, and a note too general no longer says anything useful.

Open questions

• How do you check that a detached note no longer lets anyone recognize the client who fed it?