Book Description

Winning through Innovation is a complete manager's tool kit for organizational change.With lessons from their research and consulting practice as well as from dozens of companies, the authors explain why industry leaders so often lose their innovative edge-and how to keep it.The Management of Innovation and Change Series. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

The message is reasonable but overhyped.
This book exemplifies the business of the Harvard Business School. It draws snippets from many case studies (available for purchase separately), it ties into seminars and tailored sessions sold at fancy prices to industry, and it presents one of several competing but overlapping theories of what divides successful and unsuccessful companies. It is often compared with Clayton Christensen's book "The Innovator's Dilemma" (obliquely referenced in the preface, but not appearing in the index or bibliography), and indeed both deal with the question of how established companies deal with technologies (in the loosest sense) that change markets. Of the two, I vastly prefer Christensen's book because he tells coherent stories that reach conclusions. This book introduces situations without enough detail to get a true feel for what is going on. In one extreme case ("... John Torrance at Medtek ...", p. 61), a reference is introduced that has no antecedent. The authors of books in this genre like to name drop to show you how broad and deep is their knowledge; therefore you should regard their version of gospel as more credible than their rivals. (How about a case sometime on business school professors?) There are "figures" and "tables" which I suspect are PowerPoint pastes from their lectures. Some of them are referenced (weakly) in the text -- most of them have no direct connection to the exposition. In short, the book gives the impression of being slapped together in haste. For the most part, it is well edited -- a few punctuation lapses notwithstanding. But it needed more editing for content. The table on page 13 says that the "Winchester" company fell victim to its success in disk drives, but the term "Winchester disk" refers not to a company but the code name of a very succesful product prior to its announcement. (Cf. http://www.....htm among other similar web references.) On page 163 they say that IBM lost key control to Intel and Microsoft by betting on the wrong PC design. The conclusion is true, but has nothing whatever to do with the false premise. Now these are all throwaway lines in the book, but they undermine the credibility of the main argument. As an earlier reviewer here put it, the book is about five chapters too long, again, I suspect, because it was produced in haste in order to sell to HBS program participants and in order to get on to the next piece of work. For those who haven't been exposed to the basic ideas (e.g., culture matters), it may well be invaluable, but it ain't the one, true gospel.

5 Chapters Too Many
Captivating stories. Could have reduced the length of the book by 5 or so chapters to avoid repeating the same concepts.

The greatest business book I have ever read
I read many business books - from Drucker to Peters, etc., but this one is very insightful, practical, and easy to follow! One day I will own my own business and this book will be by my side!

Discontinuinity To Remain Competitive
Many successful companies continue to live onto their past success stories and forget the drastic changes taking place in the market. This symptom ultimately makes their successes short-lived and their market positioning easily challenged,and overtaken, by other not-so-famous competitors. To evade such perils, this book explains lucidly the idea of discontinuous innovations through which "culture of innovation" can be obtained and finally reach to an ambidextrous organization. Without innovation no organization can ever think of surviving in this cut-throat competitive market. The concepts in the books are easy to understand via appropriate examples and related explanation.

provocative, insightful, and essential reading
I hardly ever read business books, but this held my interest to the end. I now have a very successful business, and I largely credit the ideas in this book for helping me get through some hard challenges ... Read more

Book Description

The Harvard Business Review paperback series is designed to bring today's managers and professionals the fundamental information they need to stay competitive in a fast-moving world. Here are the landmark ideas that have established the Harvard Business Review as required reading for ambitious businesspeople in organizations around the globe. Harvard Business Review on Leadership gathers together eight of the Harvard Business Review's most influential articles on leadership, challenging many long-held assumptions about the true sources of power and authority. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Very insightful.
Gives an insightful view of a manager's job. It enunciates traits and behaviors of leaders and managers very well, and explains how it is important for a manager to have both traits. The material triggers a manager to look within to understand one's leadership and managerial styles. If one wishes to change or develop leadership and managerial skills this material is a great beginning.
It also points out that organizations and academic institutions are good at developing organizational specialists but not at training managers. The author thinks that these institutions should provide management programs that also focus on developing leadership and managerial skills. But to do that it's important to understand what managers and leaders really do.
Overall a very good read for a traditional manager to be introspective and effective.

We need now true leadership
I felt that the first three writers were the strongest. Mintzberg promotes an idea that leader is just a role in his advocated all mighty manager. Zaleznik brings this down with his idea that managers and leaders are different kind of people and talk about managerial mystique. But maybe best advice how to solve present leadership dilemma comes from Kotter, who says that companies should pick up talented individuals and then put them to grow into leaders through tough challenges.

Harvard Business Review on Leadership
Excellent book with eight fantastically different views on Leadership. Describes fundamental differences between leadership and Management and brings forth thought process which can help professionals in all fields. Contents are 1) The managers Job (folclore and fact), 2) What leaders really do, 3)managers and leaders (are they different), 4) The discipline of building Character, 5) the ways CEO's lead (5 different ways gathered from study of 160 CEO's),6)The human side of management, 7) the work of leadership, 8) whatever happened to the take-charge manager, also contains brief background about the contributors. Each chapter is from a different contributor

EIGHT ORIGINAL, SIGHTFUL PERSPECTIVES ON LEADERSHIP
Looking for some informative, original and clear thinking about leadership? This book is a great choice! The eight articles in this work cover: the role of leadership, differences between managing and leading, and ways chief executives lead. Each article begins with an executive summary which, for the fast-forward crowd, is a big plus.

So many books are merely ONE GOOD ARTICLE embedded in a thicket of verbiage. Chopping away through such a jungle of verbosity for the gist-of-it-all often proves tedious and disappointing. (Blessed are the laconic!) This book, on the other hand, just serves up a bunch of 'gists' -the pure meat and potatoes of ideas. Happily, the HBSP has published several other collections of this sort on such topics as knowledge management, change, and strategies for growth. Each of these is collection of first-rate 'gists'. Reviewed by Gerry Stern, founder, Stern & Associates, author of Stern's Sourcefinder The Master Directory to HR and Business Management Information & Resources, Stern's CyberSpace SourceFinder, and the Compensation and Benefits SourceFinder. ... Read more

Book Description

Managers Must "Get" Gamers…or Lose

Think video games are kids' stuff? Think again. Provocative new data shows that video games have created a new generation of employees and executives-bigger than the baby boom-that will dramatically transform the workplace. And according to strategists John C. Beck and Mitchell Wade, managers who understand and harness this generation's distinct attributes can leap far ahead of their competition.

Got Game shows how growing up immersed in video games has profoundly shaped the attitudes and abilities of this new generation. Though little-noticed, these ninety million rising professionals, through sheer numbers, will inevitably dominate business-and are already changing the rules.

While many of these changes are positive-such as more open communication and creative problem-solving-they have caused a generation gap that frustrates gamers and the boomers who manage them. Got Game identifies the distinct values and traits that define the gamer generation-from an increased appetite for risk to unexpected leadership skills-and reveals management techniques today's leaders can use to bridge the generation gap and unleash gamers' hidden potential.

... Read more

Book Description

In today's information-rich environment, companies can no longer afford to rely entirely on their own ideas to advance their business, nor can they restrict their innovations to a single path to market. As a result, says Harvard Business School professor Henry W. Chesbrough, the traditional model for innovation--which has been largely internally focused, closed off from outside ideas and technologies--is becoming obsolete. Emerging in its place is a new paradigm, "open innovation," which strategically leverages internal and external sources of ideas and takes them to market through multiple paths.

This path-breaking analysis is based on extensive field research, academic study, and the author's own longtime experience working in Silicon Valley. Through rich descriptions of the innovation processes of Xerox, IBM, Lucent, Intel, Merck, and Millennium, and the many spin-offs that have emerged from these firms, Open Innovation shows how companies can use their business model to identify a more enlightened role for R&D in a world of abundant information, better manage and access intellectual property, advance their current business, and grow their future business.

Arguing that companies in all industries must transform the way they commercialize knowledge, Chesbrough convincingly shows how open innovation can unlock the latent economic value in a company's ideas and technologies. ... Read more

Reviews (8)

Interesting and well documented
Chesbrough's premise is that innovation is a technology company's wealth. That hasn't changed. What has changed since the 70s is how that wealth is use. Back then it was hoarded, now it is bought, sold, leased, borrowed, traded, and invested.

This book covers a wide range of business models, both good and bad, with case studies for each. Most samples are mentioned only briefly, like RCA's response to the transistor. (They invested more in vacuum tubes!) Three major case studies show three major strategies for the trade in ideas: Xerox, Intel, and IBM. The Xerox model never successfully opened itself to the marketplace of ideas, and Xerox suffered for it. Intel, by contrast, went for years with no formal R&D group of its own. accepting and improving others' technology. IBM showed how a company could transform itself from an innovation hermit to a gregarious buyer and seller of technology.

The book is very readable. It gives enough information to make each point clear, in terms of real companies in the recent past. The author avoids both MBA jargoneering and academic dryness, making this very accessible to any interested reader.

This is a quick and rewarding read. It lacks academic rigor, but it's at a good level for anyone wanting a practical perspective on innovation strategies, yesterday, today, and in the transition between.

Interesting, but incomplete and idealistic
There's a wonderful introduction to a variety of research and development styles, along with analyses of how they affect the company and its place in the industry. It also has a great discussion of why publicly traded companies that have made certain innovation-style choices are compelled to act they way they do, simply in order to maintain shareholder value.

Unfortunately, the suggestions are marginalized by what seems to be a complete omittance of today's patent laws and their effects on workers (i.e. most legal departments do NOT allow their technology workers to search or look at patents). There's also a whole proposal around rewarding for finding patents and finder's fees that just seems a bit preposterous, at least in the software field. I've never heard of a software patent that detailed something that was non-obvious; merely of ones that patented things that hadn't yet been patented. In any case, I'm no expert in that area, but without an analysis of IP laws and the usefulness of the licensing of patents, I'm hard-pressed to call this anything but a sort of reality-disconnected idealism.

Not a great book
Its not a very great book, apart from a few case studies there is no concrete model around which the book has been written such as Michael Cusumano's Platform leadership( a somewhat related are)

Open Innovation
Simply very good book exploring the new paradigm in the changing technological world.

The importance of embracing open business relationships
In the field of technology change appears to occur at an ever increasing rate. Through innovation in research and development new breakthroughs occur, new products are brought to market, sales brings in money to fund research and the cycle goes on and on. At least this is the way that it is generally thought to occur. In reality hostile takeovers, IPO bids and the like keep interrupting the cycle. Companies refuse to look outside of themselves for innovative ideas or the application of their technology to new ventures. So the system is actually a closed cycle within the company instead of an open one the embraces the value of processes, people, and others outside of the company.

Business innovations create potential but do not have value in and of themselves. It is the business model that turns innovation into profits. We have all seen inferior products bypass superior ones because of a better business model. Unfortunately for the consumer, it is not at all uncommon.

So, the business model itself defines the profit received from an innovation. Why? Because the business model is the single most important factor in determining a suitable market for the innovation, costs, profit margins, and competitive position. The business model determines whether the company will take advantage of all opportunities including those outside itself or just utilize those opportunities that they can produce internally. The authors detail several case studies that point out the difference between closed and open innovation and the results of each very clearly.

The finishing touch to the book is that it clearly details the path to open innovation and how to move a company from a closed mindset to an open one. This is a highly recommended read for anyone wanting to take advantage of technology to increase their profits. ... Read more

Amazon.com

"After conducting fourteen formal studies and more than a thousand interviews, directly observing dozens of executives in action, and compiling innumerable surveys, I am completely convinced that most organizations today lack the leadership they need," contends John P. Kotter, the Konosuke Matsushita Professor of Leadership at Harvard Business School. "And the shortfall is often large. I'm not talking about a deficit of 10%, but of 200%, 400%, or more in positions up and down the hierarchy," he writes in the opening essay to John P. Kotter on What Leaders Really Do, a collection of his most notable articles on the topic for the Harvard Business Review. Kotter isn't known to pull punches, and these pieces--falling into two categories, those concerned with "Leadership and Change" and those focusing on "Dependency and Networks"--are no exception. The articles in the book sensibly point out the difference between management and leadership; they advocate setting a direction rather than planning and budgeting, and motivating people rather than controlling them. They are tied together effectively by the aforementioned new essay, in which Kotter presents his "Ten Observations About Management Behavior" to summarize the concepts he has developed over a 30-year career. --Howard Rothman ... Read more

Reviews (9)

Kotter Knows
John knows his stuff. I've worked for P&G, M&M/Mars and The NutraSweet Company and I know the halls, people and thinking Kotter discusses. He is spot on in his examination of what good leaders really do, something that can often seem like a mystery. I found it interesting that people were evenly split on this book between raves and pans. So much of what you get out of a book like this is related to personal experience. I don't know if I changed my paradigm after reading What Leaders Really Do, but I increased my empathy and understanding. Always a good thing, no?

The Same Old Stuff!
Please retire, or get some new ideas!

A MUST Read for Anyone in Management
I bought this book on second thought because I was also buying "Leading Change" by Kotter. However, I picked up this book and could not put it down. As a long-time leader, this book validates much of what I already know and do. However, it also brings a lot of insight into the differences between leadership and management. The author really analyzes the complexity and interdependency and interrelationships that are faced by, and must be overcome or managed by leaders and managers. I liked what and how Kotter says it in this book that I bought one for each of my managers (I'm a CEO). I am hoping that this easy-to-read, and understandable book brings a lot of insight to them. I highly recommend this book to all current leaders and managers, and anyone hoping to go into leadership or management or both.

Insightful and Relevant
This is a well-researched and cutting-edge book that shows what leaders are made of, what habits they have in common, and from where they come. Mr. Kotter blends well the facts we need to know with human-interest stories of several successful managers. Great book.

Also recommeded: The Leader's Guide: 15 Essential Skills

Almost completely non-informative
This book contains John Kotter's usual dose of platitudes and blindingly obvious insights. Anyone that gets anything useful out of this book is far too dumb to lead anything at all, except perhaps a hollow and meaningless life.

How he has gotten the world to swallow this nonsense book after book, each one a rehash of his previous mishmash of meaningless business speak ("energizing your employees") and vague, unfollowable axioms about, for example, "having vision," is beyond me. But perhaps I just haven't achieved my full alignment potential. ... Read more

Book Description

How should you respond if you are offered an opportunity at worksolely because of your race or gender?

What should you do if asingle parent on your staff is falling behind in his or herwork?

How do you lead the launch of a product you know will beextremely controversial?

This is a book about work choices and lifechoices, and the critical points--or defining moments--at which the twobecome one. It examines the right-versus-right conflicts that everybusiness manager faces and presents an unorthodox yet practical way formanagers to think about and resolve them.

When making hardprofessional decisions, managers often use personal values as atouchstone.According to Badaracco, however, resolving such dilemmasis not as simple as the inspirational do the right thing school ofethics would have you believe. Defining Moments reveals an alternativeapproach that helps managers tackle the more complex and troublingquestion of what to do when doing the right thing requires doingsomething else wrong, or leaving another right thingundone.

Drawing on philosophy, literature, and three stories thatreveal the increasing complexity today's managers face as their careersadvance, Defining Moments provides tangible examples, actionable steps,and a flexible framework that managers at all levels can use to makethe choices that will shape not only their careers, but theircharacters.

Compelling, readable, and absent of ethical jargon,Defining Moments gets to the core of what makes being a manager sodifficult, as it explores what it means--and whether it's evenpossible--to be a successful manager and a thoughtful, responsiblehuman being. ... Read more

Reviews (9)

Required Reading
Great choice for any manager or business administration student.

Tackling the Dilemmas of Ethical Choices
A few weeks ago a customer of mine asked my assistance to help his organisation to write an ethical code. I knew he had been "working" on this topic for the last 2 years and that he had been applying some of the principles I teach in my emotional intelligence classes. Apparently, this hadn't been enough to solve his problem, but it was enough to come back to me to seek my advice. This was one of the books I bought to document myself on the issue.

This book was a good resource by providing me different points of views concerning the question, and by pointing out that it's not a simple matter of making a choice (for instance, one lead by intuition and emotions, as is recommended sometimes). The cases presented point to several kinds of dilemmas: the personal ones (choosing between what's right for you and for the organisation), the managerial ones (choosing between the organisation and the people that ore working for it) and the social ones (choosing between the organisation and the larger social system it's a part of). The book also points out different sources we have for basing our decisions on.

The problem remains that values and principles often point into different directions. Ethical choice techniques such as the "sleep-test", the "golden rule" and other sources of inspiration do not solve this.

Learning from that, it becomes clear why one should not expect to find the answers to your ethical problems in this book. Finding "the" answer is "impossible". In a "defining moment", you will have to examine which values you are committed to, these values will be put to test (will you go for their implications) and they will shape your future. I believe (with the author) that there are no easy answers to the *real* issues we are faced with. That's why this book shows in what way you have to search for your answer. Reading this book will at least allow you to ask the right questions and to look at various aspects in order to make a personal choice.

If I would have read this book earlier, my own book would certainly have included a reference to it.

What will I tell my customer? Well, writing the "code" won't be enough, in stead we should focus on teaching people how to make an ethical choice.

Patrick E.C. Merlevede, M.Sc is the main author of "7 Steps to Emotional Intelligence"

Excellent Book on Ethics (for everyone)
While this book may seem catered towards business management issues (and the examples given in the text are), the ideas, values and approaches presented within the text are universal. I, myself, am not a "business person" or "manager" and found this book extremely enlightening and helpful, and can apply the values and examples to my own life and work.

The basic premise of the book revolves around (what Badaracco calls) the "defining moments" of an individual's life; these are instances in which a person is faced with a decision that has no clear "right vs. wrong" answer (which he calls a "right vs. right" question), yet the decision the individual makes will define who the person is in times that follow. He uses three different examples of real-life quandaries that managers have faced in the past (as well as their conclusions). Badaracco does not tell his audience how they should act in a given situation, but instead, gives the audience the introspective tools needed to make better decisions that support who they are as an individual.

Again, terrific book and well worth anyone's time who is interested in the ethical decision making process.

10 STARS IF I COULD!
I don't know how this book reach to my hands...thank God. Defining moments is one of the most inspiring and intelligent books I have ever read (...read it and you will see). Badaracco presents a very pragmatic and eclectical easy-to-do framework to decide between several choises that sometimes present to be strong dilemas. Badaracco advises us to learn who we are and who we want to become...he smartly affirms that what we decide in this moments will define our values and ourselves (that is why he call them "Defining Moments"). No more we will have to stay awake at night trying to solve these dilemmas and feel insecure about our decisions. You will also learn a great deal about extreme approaches to decision making....from the moralism of Aristoteles to pragmatism of Maquiavelo and Nietzsche in an easy reading.

Best book on the subject.
As an attorney who teaches business ethics inside corporations, I've read many books on this subject. This is the best. It focuses on the way real world ethical dilemmas arise -- not in decisions between right and wrong, but between two options, both of which are "right." This is a short, practical, readable book that really makes you think. ... Read more

Book Description

The Harvard Business Review paperback series is designed to bring today's managers and professionals the fundamental information they need to stay competitive in a fast-moving world. Here are the landmark ideas that have established the Harvard Business Review as required reading for ambitious businesspeople in organizations around the globe. The eight articles in Harvard Business Review on Knowledge Management highlight the leading-edge thinking and practical applications that are defining the field of knowledge management. Includes Peter Drucker's prophetic "The Coming of the New Organization" and Ikujiro Nonaka's "Knowledge-Creating Company." ... Read more

Reviews (10)

Knowledge Management, a layperson's perspective
Knowledge Management, published by Harvard Business School Press, is a compilation of articles excerpted from the Harvard Business Review covering a period from 1988-1997. The articles in general focus on the way organizations can acquire, use, and maintain knowledge in order to remain on the cutting edge of their fields. The underlying message of this book, expressed by Peter F. Drucker in "The Coming of the New Organization (page 1)," is that future organizations must take advantage of technology to collect and track data so that data can be translated into useful information.

The manner in which companies acquire knowledge from data can vary. Ikujiro Nonaka in his article "The Knowledge Creating Company (page 21)" provides a general approach. Nonaka suggests that creating new knowledge requires, in addition to the processing of objective information, tapping into the intuitions insights and hunches of individual employees and then making it available for use in the whole organization. Within this framework is an understanding of two types of knowledge: tacit and explicit. Both of these have to exist in an organization and exchange between and within each type is needed for creation of new knowledge. Another point in Nonaka's article is that the creation of new knowledge is not limited to one department or group but can occur at any level. It requires a system that encourages frequent dialogue and communication. Similar but more defined ideas are presented in David Garvin's "Building a Learning Organization (page 47)."

Garvin's approach focuses on the importance of having an organization that learns. Garvin defines a learning organization as one that is "skilled at creating, acquiring, and transferring knowledge, and at modifying its behavior to reflect new knowledge and insights (page 51)." He describes five activities/skills that are the foundation for learning organizations. These are systematic problem solving, experimentation, and review of past experiences, learning from others, and transferring knowledge.

"Teaching Smart People How to Learn (page 81)" by Chris Argyris, deals with the way individuals within an organization can block the acquisition of new knowledge because of the way they reason about their behavior. In order to foster learning behavior in all employees, an organization must encourage productive reasoning. One caution is that use of productive reasoning can be threatening and actually hampers the process of learning if not implemented throughout the whole organization.

Leonard and Straus in "Putting Your Company's Whole Brain to Work (page 109)," address another way in which knowledge can be acquired. They identify two broad categories: left brained and right brained individuals, with different approaches to the same concept based on cognitive differences. Within these categories, there is great potential for conflict, which can stifle the creative process. However these different perspectives are important for full development of a new concept. Innovative companies should keep a balance of these different personality types to avoid stagnation and to encourage development of new ideas. The management of the cognitive types in a way that is productive for the company occurs through the process of creative abrasion.

One can surmise from the articles in general that data and information are valuable if they can be used to maintain the knowledge base or provide the basis for acquiring new knowledge. The organization that creates new knowledge encourages the following in its employees: creativity, a commitment to the goals of the organization, self-discipline, self-motivation, and individual exploration and identification of behaviors that may be barriers to learning. Cognitive preferences should be recognized and used to the companies' advantage. Finally, companies can learn from the best practices of others and from their customers. After knowledge is acquired, it can be disseminated for use throughout the organization and maintained in different ways.

One key method to maintain knowledge repeated in several articles is the importance of an environment that fosters innovation. Quinn et al, in "Managing Professional Intellect: Making the Most of the Best (page 181)," describe this as creating a culture of self-motivated creativity within an organization. There are several ways to do this: recruitment of the best for that field, forcing intensive early development (exposing new employees early to complex problems they have to solve), increasing professional challenges and rigorous evaluations.

Another way to maintain and use knowledge is through pioneering research, described by Brown in "Research that reinvents the Corporation (page 153)." In this process companies can combine basic research practices, with its new and fresh solutions, and applied research to the company's most pressing problems. Dissemination of new knowledge can occur by letting the employees experience the new innovation and so own it. As mentioned in the article by Nonaka, creation of a model that represents the new information is a way for transfer to the rest of the organization. Also the knowledge from the professional intellect within an organization can be transferred into the organization's systems, databases and operating technologies and so made available to others within the organization. An example of this is Merryl Lynch, which uses a database of regularly updated information to link its 18,000 agents.

Yet another tool for disseminating information within an organization is the learning history, described by Kleiner and Roth in "How to Make Experience Your Company's Best Teacher (page 137)." This makes use of the ages old community practice of storytelling to pass on lessons and traditions. The learning history collects data from a previous experience with insight from different levels of employees involved and puts it together in the form of a story that can be used in discussion groups within the organization. In companies where this has been used, it builds trust, provides an opportunity for collective reflection, and can be an effective way to transfer knowledge from one part of the company to another. In addition, incentives in the form of a report in response to the new innovation and achievement awards encourages employees to learn and helps with the dissemination of information.

Ideal Intro To A Very Intangible Topic
While other facets of managment consulting will ultimately yield to lower-cost technology tools, or consultants, KM shall reign as the ultimate value-added analysis. That was my hypothesis before buying this book, and it has only been proven true. The essays in the book range from esoteric to the executable, and include valuable case studies to punctuate the themes. Knowledge Management means so many things, that it can come to mean nothing. This book does an excellent job of providing some metes and bounds to the topic and to stimulate thinking around important organizational and operational issues.But don't get it and expect to be an "instant expert." This is an overview, albeit an excellent one.

Knowledge Management with practical applications
Excelente libro que proporciona las bases suficientes sobre la administración del conocimiento, además de tener como respaldo el prestigio de una casa de estudios como es la Universidad de Harvard.

Lo recomiendo ampliamente.

Need to know vs, Nice to know
Having recently moved into the KM area I thought this book would be a 'must read'....but as anither reviewer pointed out if you have been keeping in touch with KM from the beginning (or whatever , from '96) would not find anything earth-shattering (that's the tacit selling job of the HBR logo, right?) in the compilation.

We all have heard about Drucker's "knowledge workers" and Nonaka's "Creation of Knowledge" and Argyris and his "teaching smart people" and Dorothy Leonard's "whole organisation brain" theory ad nauseum ad infinitum!

Guess HBR should have added more value (or retros or something ) instead of just taking photcopies of their old articles and printing them together!

A good introduction
The Harvard Business Review Series is a collection of reprints of some classic articles from the journal. There are some classic, thought provoking pieces in this book.

In light of the current Japanese recession, it is interesting to reread Nonaka's review of Japanese group methods for promoting creativity in the corporation. He argues that it is a western idea that knowledge is 'hard', or can be digested into records in a computer. He describes cycles of tacit to explicit knowledge that a learning group experiences. I enjoyed his characterization of the senior manager as a romantic pursuing ideals. In the next wave of eBusiness will the companies that thrive be able to leverage the tacit knowledge in the current operational model of the internet?

This is a good starting reference on this topic. ... Read more

Book Description

The business world seems to have given up on loyalty: many major corporations now lose-and have to replace-half their customers in five years, half their employees in four, and half their investors in less than one. Fred Reichheld's national bestseller The Loyalty Effect shows why companies that ignore these skyrocketing defections face a dismal future of low growth, weak profits, and shortened life expectancy. Reichheld demonstrates the power of loyalty-based management as a highly profitable alternative to the economics of perpetual churn. He makes a powerful economic case for loyalty-and takes you through the numbers to prove it. His startling conclusion: Even a small improvement in customer retention can double profits in your company. The Loyalty Effect will change the way you think about loyalty, profits, and the nature of business. ... Read more

Reviews (20)

A great, non-preachy business book
While many authors of business books seem to be really just selling their consulting services, Mr. Reicheld paints a picture of what businesses need to do to retain customers while adding VALUE to those customer relationships. Reicheld talks about his experience as a consultant, but I never felt he was trying to sell me on his services. The Loyalty Effect is a must read for anyone who is mystified at why their profits aren't as high as their competitors while everyone seems to have about equal margin.

The most valuable business book I've ever read
Reichheld lays out both why loyalty matters, and why difficulty in measuring the impact of loyalty has made managers undervalue it in the past. He shows how loyal relationships with employees, suppliers, customers and investors all contribute to a company's long term success.

His insights are profound for anyone building a company. We have used his insights to build our business, and have benefited enormously from the viewpoints expressed in this book.

Superb
Simply the best business book I've read in years. An invaluable framework for long-term success.

Substantiating soft efforts for loyalty with hard figures
“Loyalty is dead” begins this classic about loyalty. But after you’ve read this book, you'll know that pursuing loyalty pays off. The authors show you many ways to measure the profit of loyalty. Not only is employee loyalty important but also the loyalty of customers and investors. The first step is to build up a set of values for your company. This core task can't be delegated; it must be done by CEOs themselves. Loyalty can't be managed; it must be earned. The book contains many examples of how large companies have done this. What I like most about this book are the hints for substantiating “soft” efforts for loyalty with “hard” figures. Most of the time the authors argue for a focus on the long term. Loyalty-based management is hard work. This is the right book to get you started.

Peter Pick
(...)

How to Achieve and Then Sustain Loyalty
I read this book when it was first published and recently re-read it. Those who have checked out my reviews of other books which address many of the same issues already know that I have a bias with regard to "customer satisfaction" and "customer loyalty", agreeing with Jeffrey Gitomer and others that the former is wholly dependent on each transaction and the latter can end (sometimes permanently) because of a single unsatisfactory transaction. The objective for those who have customers (be they internal or external) is to achieve and then sustain their passion about doing business with you. You want them to become evangelists.

Of course, Reichheld fully understands all this. In a brilliant essay which recently appeared in the Harvard Business Review, he shares new research which (again) shows that companies with faithful employees, customers, and investors (i.e. capital sources which include banks) share one key attribute: leaders who stick with six "bedrock principles": preach what you practice (David Maister has much of value to say about this in his most recently published book, Practice What You Preach), play to win-win, be picky, keep it simple, reward the right results, and finally, listen hard...talk straight. In this book, Reichheld organizes his material within 11 chapters which range from "Loyalty and Value" to "Getting Started: The Path Toward Zero Defections." With meticulous care, he explains how to devise and them implement programs which will help any organization to earn the loyalty of everyone involved in the enterprise. He draws upon a wealth of real-world experience which he and his associates in Bain & Company, a worldwide strategy consulting firm. Reichheld heads up its Loyalty Practice. In his most recently published book, Practice What You Preach, David Maister explains why there must be no discrepancy whatsoever between the "talk" we talk and the "walk" we walk. Reichheld agrees, noting that the "key" to the success of his own organization "has been its loyalty to two principles: first, that our primary mission is to create value for our clients, and second, that our most precious asset is the employees dedicated to making productive contributions to client value creation. Whenever we've been perfectly centered on these two principles, our business has prospered." It is no coincidence that the world's most highly admired companies are also the most profitable within their respective industries. I wholly agree with Reichheld that loyalty is critically important as a measure of value creation and as a source of profit but that it is by no means "a cure-all or a magic bullet." Loyalty is based on trust and respect. It must be earned, usually over an extended period of time and yet can be lost or compromised at any time with a single betrayal.

Here are three brief excerpts:

"One common barrier to better loyalty and higher productivity is the fact that a lot of business executives, and virtually all accounting departments, treat income and outlays as if they occurred in separate worlds. The truth is, revenues and costs are inextricably linked, and decisions that focus on one or the other -- as opposed to both -- often misfire."

"Companies cannot succeed or grow unless they can serve their customers with a better value proposition that the competition. Measuring customer and employee loyalty can accurately gauge the weaknesses in a company's value proposition and help to prescribe a cure."

"While every loyalty leader's strategy is unique, all of them build on the following eight elements: Building a superior customer value proposition, finding the right customers, earning customer loyalty, finding the right employees, earning employee loyalty, gaining cost advantage through superior productivity, finding the right [capital sources], and earning [their] loyalty."

Who will derive the greatest value from this book? Decision-makers in any organization (regardless of size or nature) which has been weakened by defections among customers and/or employees. If the primary objectives are value creation and partnership, decision-makers in these organizations must never betray or neglect any of the fundamentals of loyalty-based management: "partnership builds incentive; incentive builds value; value builds loyalty; loyalty builds even greater value." It's as simple and (yes) as difficult as that. ... Read more

Download Description

This is an enhanced edition of HBR article 94403, originally published in July 1994. HBR OnPoint articles include the full-text HBR article plus a summary of key ideas and company examples to help you quickly absorb and apply the concepts. Is your company a rule maker or a rule follower? Does your company focus on catching up or on getting out in front? Do you spend the bulk of your time as a maintenance engineer preserving the status quo or as an architect designing the future? Difficult questions like these go unanswered not because senior managers are lazy--most are working harder than ever--but because they won't admit that they are less than fully in control of their companies' future. In this adaptation from their upcoming book, Hamel and Prahalad urge senior managers to look toward the future and ponder their ability to shape their companies in the years and decades to come. Creating the future, as Electronic Data Systems has done, for example, requires industry foresight. Since change is inevitable, managers must decide whether it will happen in a crisis atmosphere or in a calm and considered manner. Too often, profound thinking about the future occurs only when present success has been eroded. ... Read more

Reviews (27)

Largely an academic waste of time
If your really want to understand how to compete for the future, read Crossing the Chasm, following by Inside the Tornado (Geoffrey Moore). Competing for the Future will largely waste your time. It is a 100 page book crammed into 300+ pages. The authors spend lots of time repeating fuzzy feel good ideas, and criticizing current managers, but say little that would actually help you compete for the future. They continually cite Apple as the poster child for Competing for the Future (ignoring the fact that the Mac was created in a skunkworks -- a concept they poo-poo.) Yet you can see from Apple's plight today that Hamel and Prahalad have certainly not found the most important thing for long term success. Companies that spend too much time looking 20 years out will never see it, as Apple will not. The truth is that top management can certainly ask themselves "What will competition mean in 20 years?", but they will most certainly be wrong. We live in chaotic times, and the best companies know how to turn on a dime and exploit current emerging markets (Microsoft is great at this). Hamel and Prahalad's books is destined to sit on many shelves, looking very impressive but doing nothing for its readers.

Competing for the Future
The Business Strategy text written by Hamel and Prahalad delivers mind opening advice and insight that I consider to be helpful for all managers and professionals services consultants.

The text describes and recommends a shift in business strategy. More importantly, the negative impact of not shifting is illustrated by an abundant sample of real life situations (i.e. Xerox, General Motors).

In the past, and even still to this very day, senior managers in the U.S. are betting the ranch on reengineering and restructuring efforts as a means of staying competitive in the future.

Hamel and Prahald disagree with the continued touting of such efforts. While not completely against reengineering efforts, the duo write a convicing argument detailing that managers must shift from the old tools and invest more time and resources into innovation. The value of a company will not reside in how lean and efficient the operations are, it will reside in the company's capability and resources to create new businesses and get to the future first.

Resouces, capabilities, and processes under the new paradigm must and will operate in a state of constant change. Grasping on to the old business model will represent the company's death blow.

Companies under the new paradigm must develop an open environment by which the company can easily exploit new busineses quickly; hence, taking full advantage of the benefits of being first to market (dictating the market in contrast to following the market represents substantial profits).

Ronnie O'Dell

Division Marketing Executive Canon Astro Business Services, CANON USA Calabasas, CA

An important book to read
Few companies that began the 1980s as industry leaders ended the decade with their leadership in tact and undiminished. Many household name companies saw their success eroded or destroyed by tides of technological, demographic and regulatory change and order-of-magnitude productivity gains made by nontraditional competitors. "Do you really have a global strategy", the first HBR article by Hamel and Prahalad, developed the theme that small companies could prevail against larger, richer companies by inventing new ways of doing more with less. Differences in resource effectiveness could not be explained by efficiency, labor or capital, but by amazingly ambitious goals that stretched beyond typical strategic plans, raising the question how such incredible goals could get past the credibility test and be made tangible and real to employees? Frequently the small challengers rewrote the rules of engagement; flexibility and speed were built atop supplier-management advantage, built atop quality advantages. Companies made commitments to particular skill areas a decade in advance of specific end-product markets. How did executives select which capabilities to build for the future? Some managers were foresightful, others imagined and gave birth to entirely new products and services. These managers created new competitive space while laggard companies protected the past rather than creating the future. Existing theory throws little light on what it takes to fundamentally reshape an industry and the gap provoked this book in which the goal is to enlarge the concept of the industry and not just the organization. Being incrementally better is not enough because a company that cannot imagine the future won't be around to enjoy it. This book is about strategy and how to think by drawing on the experience of companies that have overcome resource disadvantages to build positions of global leadership. It is about companies that escaped the curse of success to rebuild industry leadership a second or third time. It has been written for companies that believe that the best way to win is to rewrite the rules; it is for those who are not afraid to challenge orthodoxy, for those who prefer to build rather than cut, for those committed to making a difference and staking out the future first.

We need to ask ourselves eight questions:
- does senior management have a clear and broadly shared understanding of how the industry may be different in ten years time? Is management's view of the future clearly reflected in short-term priorities?
- How influential is my company in setting the new rules of competition within the industry? Is it regularly defining new ways of doing business and setting new standards of customer satisfaction?
- Is senior management fully alert to the dangers posed by new, unconventional rivals? Are potential threats to the current business model widely understood? Do senior executives possess a keen sense of urgency about the need to reinvent the current business model?
- Is my company pursuing growth and new business development with as much passion as it is pursuing operational efficiency and downsizing? Do we have a clear view of where the next revenue growth will come from?
- What percentage of our improvement efforts focuses on creating advantages new to the industry, and what percentage focuses on merely catching up to our competitors? Are competitors as eager to benchmark us, as we are to benchmark them?
- What is driving our improvement and transformation agenda - our own view of future opportunities or the actions of our competitors? Is our transformation agenda mostly offensive or defensive?
- Am I more of a maintenance engineer keeping today's business humming along or an architect imagining tomorrow's businesses? Do I devote more energy to prolonging the past than I do to creating the future?
- What is the balance between hope and anxiety in my company; between confidence in our ability to find and exploit opportunities for growth and new business development and concern about our ability to maintain competitiveness in our traditional businesses; between a sense of opportunity and a sense of vulnerability, both corporate and personal?

These are not rhetorical questions. We are told to get a pencil and rate our company because these questions go unanswered in many cases. Such questions challenge the assumption that top management is in control or even that their knowledge and experience may be irrelevant or wrong-headed for the future. The urgent drives out the important and the future goes largely unexplored; the capacity to act is considered to be more important than the capacity to imagine. A capacity to invent new industries and to reinvent old ones is a prerequisite for getting to the future first and a precondition for staying out in front. Gaining an understanding of how to accomplish this most difficult task is the central mission of this book.

What must we do to ensure that the industry evolves in a way that is maximally advantageous for us? What skills and capabilities must we begin building now if we are to occupy the industry high ground in the future? How should we organize for opportunities that may not fit neatly within the boundaries of current business units and divisions? The answers are to be found in this book. Armed with this information, a company can create a pro-active agenda for organizational transformation and can control its own destiny by controlling the destiny of its own industry. No company can escape the need to reskill its people, reshape its product portfolio, redesign its processes, and redirect its resources. There is not one future but hundreds; there can be as many prizes as runners; imagination is the only limiting factor. In no way does the success of one preordain the failure of another. What distinguishes leaders from laggards, and greatness form mediocrity is the ability to imagine what could be. If your senior management did not do well on the eight questions, then your company may not be around a decade from now. There are few who would not profit from reading this book.

1990s thought leadership
Hamel and Prahalad brought two ideas to the forefront of management in the 1990s: Creating a strategic intent that dominates corporate thinking, and then understanding the core competencies that the organization requires to get there. Rather than create numerous 5 year plans, communicate the direction and insure you have the skills to get there.

The impact of this was felt across corporate Americas. As companies struggled in reacting to changing times, they would talk more of core competencies instead of certainy of the future. Well run companies could also articulate their vision and what they're good at. (Example GE: "We are #1 or #2 in every business we run. We get there by rigorous management and continuous improvement.") These ideas are here to stay.

Is it all so simple? In Consulting Demons, Lewis Pinault takes issue with Prahalad and his consulting practice at Gemini. He asserts that the ideas can be misapplied to fuel a consulting boom, and that Prahalad's missionary zeal was better for generating consulting fees than for corporate bottom lines.

Bottom line - the book is a good introduction to some important strategic concepts. Although it is no longer required reading at top consulting firms, it is still relevant and important. Just take the ideas (like all pop management ideas) with a grain of salt.

A retrospective on a 1994 breakthrough management guide
Corporate strategy texts are notorious for their short shelf lives, but it is instructive to revisit them during business downturns and understand what they contributed and also where they fell short.

Now that the future has happened - nine years after this book was published - what would the authors say about the dot.com bust and the collapse of erstswhile visionary corporate giants such as Enron and Global Crossing?

In 1994, the authors wrote that the goal of competition QUOTE is not to simply benchmark a competitor's products and processes and imitate its methods, but to develop an independent point of view about tommorow's opportunities and how to exploit them. UNQUOTE By this criterion, how exactly did the dot.com dwarfs or giants of the late 1990s, many of which were hailed as exactly the kind of visionary enterprises the authors encourage, fail to leave a lasting legacy?

Certainly, other breakthrough management guides have not been exempt from the harsh judgment which the benefit of hindsight might impose only a few years after these books come out. Such a fate befell one of the renowned predecessors to this book, In Search of Excellence, half of whose most admired corporations ran into serious difficulties within a few years of publicaiton of the book.

None of this undercuts some important contributions this book does continue to make about how organizations should anticipate, manage and thrive amidst rapid change. The single most important idea in this book is that of leveraging core competencies, so that a business continually focuses on what it can do best and most profitably, rather than on what it is currently doing. If nothing else, the authors have left a legacy of language which remains helpful as a common currency among business leaders who need to understand the importance of industry foresight and to shed obsolete competencies.

And the authors did rightly suggest that appropriate public policies are also needed, althought this prophetic message was unfortunately given only a fleeting mention prior to the dot.com bust QUOTE We are not arguing for a set of policy measures that in any way discriminates in favor of large companies. The goal is not to keep dinosaurs alive at any costs. However, society pays a heavy price when, through , managerial malfeasance,a company richly endowed with resources and talent self-destructs. The goal is not to embalm dinosaurs throguh subsidies, protectionism and preferential procurement policies - as European governments have too often done - but to ensure that large companies don't become dinosaurs in the first place UNQOUTE ... Read more

Book Description

The definitive overview of knowledge management, now available in paperback

This influential book establishes the enduring vocabulary and concepts in the burgeoning field of knowledge management.It serves as the hands-on resource of choice for companies that recognize knowledge as the only sustainable source of competitive advantage going forward.

Drawing from their work with more than 30 knowledge-rich firms, Davenport and Prusak—experienced consultants with a track record of success—examine how all types of companies can effectively understand, analyze, measure, and manage their intellectual assets, turning corporate wisdom into market value.They categorize knowledge work into four sequential activities—accessing, generating, embedding, and transferring—and look at the key skills, techniques, and processes of each.While they present a practical approach to cataloging and storing knowledge so that employees can easily leverage it throughout the firm, the authors caution readers on the limits of communications and information technology in managing intellectual capital. ... Read more

Reviews (23)

KEY LESSONS OF MAKING KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT WORK
If you are like most people, you are a victim of "stalled" thinking about how to make knowledge transfer work better in your organization. As the authors point out, many people believe things that will not work in practice, such as "build it and they will come" from a technology resource sharing perspective that all one needs to do is have the resource available. Unlike the theory about knowledge management, Davenport and Prusak have investigated many organizations to learn what does and does not work. Unlike some books that are no more than a few case histories strung together, the authors concisely use examples to examplify the key points of what they have learned. In their parlance, this book is full of "knowledge" rather than just "information" or "data." They are also astute observers, and notice things that many might miss. A key example of their astuteness is the observation that those who are expected to share must be given some meaningful incentive to do so. In these days of downsizing, rightsizing, etc., those with knowledge often see that knowledge as a security blanket for an economic livelihood. You have to provide some incentive to share that matches or exceeds the incentive to hoard knowledge. You need to read and understand the lessons of this book if you want to get further along in using the knowledge that is available (both in and outside of your company) to achieve greater results. A terrific book on the related subject of how to create new knowledge and use that knowledge to then create much greater results is "The 2,000 Percent Solution."

A solid overview
While this book summarized the concept of working knowledge with thoughtfulness and communicated these concepts clearly, it is not a comprehensive step-by-step instruction guide for knowledge management. Also, the book examples from organizations seemed more like a portfolio of successes or resume of experiences by the authors rather than serving as a means to more clearly covey working knowledge in action. While the examples did allow the reader to delve into more areas of working knowledge and better understand it in action, the parallel of how one would implement such strategy in one's own workplace was not nearly explored. All that being said, I thoroughly enjoyed the book and feels it serves a good, basic introduction into working knowledge. It covers what knowledge is, who has it, who uses and needs it, what skills are necessary to form and manage it, cultural and other issues related to knowledge management, ways to incorporate it (with or without technology) into the workplace, and what measurements can be used. The measurements area was a little weak. But, again, the absence of true measurement analysis and instruction remind the reader that this is a book intended for a solid look and understanding of knowledge management--not a comprehensive guide for implements and assessing it within an organization. This book provides the information that might persuade someone to value and seek knowledge management. Additional reads and study would be required in order to master it.

Great KM Systems Template
The authors wrote this book 178 page book in 2000--it is still very relevant in 2004. Not only is this book clearly written providing a wealth of content on KM systems, it is also provides a very practical and realistic template for initiating a KM system.

The final chapter was a wonderful summary of the practicals to implementation:
-start small
-business problems relates to knowledge (loss of customers and key personnel, low win rates on service engagements, poorly designed products, etc.).
-a knowledge system is more than technology. You may start with an intranet and Lotus notes. More than a third in $, time and effort on the tech part, you're neglecting the other key factors.
-Getting content will take a while. It's easy enough to put the technology in place but getting the organization contribute and use content is a behavioral challenge. So, assess the culture of your organization before launching a knowledge initiative.

"What makes knowledge valuable to organizations is ultimately the ability to make better the decisions and actions on the basis of the knowledge".

Thanks Tom and Laurence for a great book.

Learn From the Experts!
Great for any reader interested in KM.

A KM classic!
This classic is an excellent blueprint of knowledge management (KM) in action, and is a must read for KM professionals, CIOs, and CEOs. One of the unique aspects of the book is its treatment of knowledge roles, skills and personnel (such as CKOs), in addition to detailed analysis of knowledge generation, codification, transfer and technologies. The material is divided into 9 chapters, and draws on case studies of KM in action in about 40 organisations.

Today, the 'knowledge movement' is picking up as more and more companies have instituted knowledge repositories, supporting such diverse types of knowledge as best practices, lessons learned, product development knowledge, customer knowledge, human resource management knowledge, and methods-based knowledge.

'The only sustainable advantage a firm has comes from what it collectively knows, how efficiently it uses what it knows, and how readily it acquires and uses new knowledge,' the authors begin.

First, companies must understand the difference between data, information and knowledge. Generally speaking, data is transformed into information after it has been 'contextualised, categorised, calculated, corrected and condensed.' This becomes knowledge after a process involving 'comparison, consequences, connections and conversation.'

'Knowledge is a fluid mix of framed experience, values, contextual information, and expert insight that provides a framework for evaluating and incorporating new experiences and information,' the authors state. Knowledge is fluid as well as structured, and involves experience, truth, judgement and rules of thumb.

'Knowledge is aware of what it doesn't know. Many wise men and women have pointed out that the more knowledgeable one becomes, the more humble one feels about what one knows,' the authors explain.

In contrast to individual knowledge, organisational knowledge is a more complex and murky dynamic, involving socio-political factors of knowledge buying, selling, brokering, pricing, reciprocity, altruism, reputation and trust.

The chapter on knowledge generation focuses on conscious and intentional techniques like acquisition (eg. of Lotus by IBM, NCR by AT&T), rental (sponsorship of research in academic institutes, hiring a consultant), dedicated resources (research centres and universities like Xerox PARC, McDonald's universities), fusion (via brainstorming and retreats), adaptation (eg. via learning sabbaticals), and knowledge networking.

Successful codification is implemented via a knowledge taxonomy suited for different knowledge types and attributes and which is aligned with business goals, as well as narratives and rhetorical devices for communicating knowledge behaviours. This can include external knowledge (eg. competitive intelligence), structured internal knowledge (eg. research reports), and informal internal knowledge (eg. know-how databases).

Instead of 'Stop talking and get to work,' Alan Webber recommends a better attitude: 'Start talking and get to work.'

Other approaches, depending on organisational and national cultures, include corporate universities, KM workshops, group dinners, and even group drinking sessions in nightclubs as in Japan (where inebriation can sometimes be used as an excuse for voicing criticism!).

Key roles here include knowledge project managers, coaches, trainers, councillors, counsellors, officers, integrators, administrators, engineers, librarians, synthesisers, reporters, and editors -- capped by learning officers, CKOs, directors of intellectual assets, or CIOs. Consulting firms have hundreds of KM jobs; Buckman Labs even has a role for 'anecdote management' to develop stories about successful KM in practice.

Good knowledge workers need to have a combination of 'hard' skills (structured knowledge, technical abilities, professional experience) and 'soft' skills (cultural, political and personal aspects of knowledge), the authors advise.

Three key CKO responsibilities include building a knowledge culture, creating a KM infrastructure, and making it all pay of economically, the authors recommend.

'The recent dramatic rise in Internet and Intranet use is one manifestation of the expanding role of electronic technology in communication and knowledge-seeking. Firms are becoming aware both of the potential of this technology to enhance knowledge work and of the fact that the potential can be realised only if they understand more about how knowledge is actually developed and shared,' the authors explain.

The authors caution against a technology-centred KM approach, but argue that a technology ingredient is a necessary ingredient for successful KM projects.

'Peter Senge, the influential author of The Fifth Discipline, has argued recently that organisations seeking to manage knowledge have placed too much emphasis on information technology and information management. We agree. However, the world of organisational learning places too little emphasis on structured knowledge and the use of technology to capture and leverage it,' the authors forcefully argue. In fact, the word 'knowledge' is not in the index of Senge's book!

Hoffman-LaRoche used KM to efficiently manage the drug application process, cutting it down by several months at a savings of $1 million a day. New England heart surgeons have jointly collaborated to cut down mortality rate for coronary bypass surgery. HP's case-based reasoning KM tool for customer support helped reduce call times by two-thirds and cost per call by 50 per cent.

Other benefit calculations include better management of patents (eg. Dow Chemicals), improved cycle time, better customer satisfaction, and even phone calls avoided (HP).
Intangible but also important outcomes include higher workforce morale, greater corporate coherence, richer knowledge stock, more knowledge usage, and stronger meritocracy of ideas.

In terms of pragmatic steps, the authors have lots of recommendations. Start with a focused pilot project. Work along multiple fronts at once: technology, organisation, culture. Begin with existing information resources. Focus on weak areas. Lead with technology and organisational learning.

The book is also peppered with useful quotes about knowledge, and it would be appropriate to end this review with some of them:

'In the end, the location of the new economy is not in the technology. It is in the human mind' (Alan Webber);

'The real danger is not that computers will begin to think like men, but that men will begin to think like computers' (Sydney Harris);

'The great end of knowledge is not knowledge but action' (Thomas Huxley).

Knowledge is the only unlimited resource, the one asset that grows with use, according to Stanford economist Paul Romer.

>>>>>>>>>

... ... Read more

Reviews (7)

Scholarly analysis in an eminently readable enjoyable book
James Utterback has achieved the difficult goal of taking careful scholarship, drawing useful conclusions and presenting the whole package in a highly enjoyable book. He makes a major contribution by distinguishing between product innovation and process innovation and shows how and why the former is likely to come from outside the established industry players, while the latter is more likely to come from inside.

In the process he reaches back into history and covers industries ranging from pond ice to memory chips. Combining his explanation with concepts with Geoffrey Moore's "Crossing the Chasm" provides a powerful means of understanding where innovation comes from and what the barriers are to its success. Utterback's book goes beyond that. It also calls into serious question the idea (posited by Moore and others) that today's "high tech" cycle of innovation is fundamentally different from earlier innovative cycles in other industries. All in all, Utterback uses industrial history in a low-key, fact-based book that shines a clear, bright light on what drove yesterday's technology developments -- and today's.

an understanding of innovation
This book is written in a concise manner that is straightforward and easy to understand. Utterback explains how innovation has evolved over the years, using great examples from a variety of assembled and non-assembled industries. One side note, I found that this book was worth the cover price for the history of industries he mentions alone. Some of the products and industries mentioned in this book include: Incandescent light bulbs, Typewriters, Glass, photography, and Ice. This book is loaded with invaluable nuggets of insight, it is impossible to due it justice in a book review. I highly recommend reading it.

Great stories and data on innovation
Prof. Utterback spent over twenty years studying 20+ industries as they experienced dramatical technological change, trying to understand who were the market leaders before the change, who were the market leaders afterwards, and why?

He studies markets as varied as cooling (the harvested ice industry in the late 1800s), lighting (gas lighting giving way to incandescent lighting giving way to flourescent lighting), typewriters (manual typewrites giving way to electrics giving way to dedicated word processors giving way to PCs), and plate glass.

He observes that the market leaders prior to a technology change rarely are market leaders after the change, primarily because the entrepenuers and innovators are squeezed out of older companies by "incrementalists". This gave me a lot of encouragement and insight into pushing hard on Internet Explorer back in 1994..1996 at Microsoft, and also I think explains why Microsoft is struggling now.

Refreshing and Innovative Perspectives
Utterback explains "how companies can seize opportunities in the face of technological change." There are dozens (hundreds?) of other books on the same subject, notably those written by Geoffrey A. Moore. I rate this book so highly because it is exceptionally well-organized and well-written, because it examines several offbeat subjects (eg the development of the typewriter and the evolution of the typewriter industry, the development of the incandescent electric light), and because Utterback focuses so intensely -- and so effectively -- on real-world situations in which the "dynamics of innovation" are manifest. This book is very informative but also great fun to read. (Those who enjoy it as much as I did are urged to read both The History of Invention and The Lever of Riches.) Chapter 4 revisits the the dynamics of the innovation model (Figure 1-1) and then in Chapter 5, Utterback shifts his attention to developments within the plate glass manufacturing industry. In Chapter 6, he examines the innovation differences between assembled and nonassembled products. Subsequent chapters sustain the discussion of "the power of innovation in the creation of an industry" and then, in Chapter 9, Utterback "draws together some of the lessons of earlier chapters and academic research to consider the relationship between the behaviors and strategies of firms with respect to technological innovation and long-term survival." He concludes his book (in Chapter 10) by addressing "the perennial management issue of how corporations can renew their technology, products, and processes as a basis for continued competitive vitality." It is obvious to all of us that even the strongest product and business strategy will eventually be overturned by technological change. Ours is an age in which change is the only constant. Therefore, as Utterbach explains so carefully and so eloquently, the challenge is to accept the inevitability of change which results from technological innovation ("discontinuities") and to sustain a commitment to cope effectively with such change. Only such a commitment "will win the day."

'Dynamics of Innovation' continues to
The existing reviews really get to the heart of the matter. I can only add that this book continues to provide a powerful framework for analyzing technical innovation - the process and maturation of that innovation within a market. As I survey the rapid growth of trading hubs/net market makers in the industrial procurement space, I am struck by the similarity to the examples in the book. The hyper growth in this space sets the stage for the inevitable shakeout and establishment of the dominant model - yet to be determined. It is exciting to watch the market mature, with the knowledge that the changes are part of a cycle which can be comprehended and has repeated itself in multiple industries. Utterback provides a powerful framework with which technological innovation can be understood. Thank you. ... Read more

Book Description

A Pathbreaking Model for Building a New-and Far Better-World of Work

For more than a decade, business thinkers have theorized about how technology will change the shape of organizations. In this landmark book, renowned organizational theorist Thomas Malone, codirector of MIT's "Inventing the Organizations of the 21st Century" initiative, provides the first credible model for actually designing the company of the future.

Based on twenty years of groundbreaking research, The Future of Work foresees a workplace revolution that will dramatically change organizational structures and the roles employees play in them. Malone argues that current notions about decentralization merely scratch the surface of what will be possible as technological and economic forces make "command and control" management increasingly less useful.

In its place will be a more flexible "coordinate and cultivate" approach that will spawn new types of decentralized organizations-from internal markets to democracies to loose hierarchies. These future structures will reap the scale and knowledge efficiencies of large organizations while enabling the freedom, flexibility