Book Description

Authoritarian Hierarchies Are Inevitable--So Let's Learn to Live with Them

Pundits have been forecasting the demise of the hierarchical corporation for decades. We denigrate those authoritarian structures as controlling, territorial, bureaucratic, and slow-and we celebrate "alternatives" that are flatter, more democratic, and networked.

But renowned organizational behavior expert Harold J. Leavitt argues that such alternative structures have not proven viable-or even desirable-and that despite its human failings, hierarchy remains the foundational shape of every large human organization. Why? Because it works. Top Down neither defends nor attacks the much-maligned hierarchy. Rather, this counterintuitive book convincingly shows that even the "flattest" of today's organizations are really just hierarchies in disguise-and, to improve the ways hierarchies function, we must first acknowledge their inevitability.

Exploring both the benefits and shortcomings of top-down structures, Leavitt shows how leaders can reshape hierarchies to incorporate the human values and motivations that enable employees to thrive. He then offers middle managers suggestions about how best to negotiate the way through those authoritarian mazes, while maintaining their personal integrity and even finding satisfaction in their work.

Top Down is a refreshing "get real" examination of the true state of today's workplace-and an important step toward creating organizations that are efficient and productive, but also egalitarian and humane.

Harold J. Leavitt is Kilpatrick Professor of Organizational Behavior Emeritus, the Graduate School of Business, Stanford University.

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Book Description

Why are some companies better at managing innovation thanothers?With her pioneering book on knowledge management, DorothyLeonard was among the first to probe the relationship betweensuccessful innovators and the way they create, nurture, and grow theexperience and accumulated knowledge of their organization.Nowavailable for the first time in paperback, the lessons in Wellspringsof Knowledge, illustrated with examples of successes and failures innew product development, continue to provide managers with the keyknowledge-building activities they need to guide, control, and inspire. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Well written book on knowledge creation
Professor Barton has written an extremely readable book on a very imporotant topic, knowledge creation. Now a days, knowledge has become a buzz word in alomost every sphere of economic activities. But what does it mean? What does it take to create knowldege? This book addresses such questions. Barton has done important research on the subject and has produced the book with some new concepts that are extremely important in management. Her idea of "core rigidity" is indeed something every senior executive should think about.

A very worthwhile read.
This book would serve both seasoned knowledge practioners and those new to the field equally well. The writing is clear and crisp, and the content is well organized. I highly recommend this book for anyone charged with implementing knowledge strategies or at all interested in the topic. ... Read more

Book Description

Guiding MBAs into the Nonprofit Sector

As interest in nonprofit sector careers grows among MBA students and MBAs further along in their careers, the number of interesting opportunities and the need for MBA skills in this sector also continues to spiral upward. Yet MBA students and alums have experienced frustration with the job search process in this field. The Harvard Business School Guide to Careers in the Nonprofit Sector is a great resource for newly minted MBAs and alums interested in entering the nonprofit sector - whether as full-time managers, board members, or volunteers.

Tapping the career histories of thirty-four Harvard Business School alums who have carved out successful and personally rewarding lives in the nonprofit sector, Stephanie Lowell has created a resource that is both inspirational and practical. Topics covered include:
nonprofit subsector overviews with descriptions of key roles and positions for MBAs the pros and cons of a nonprofit career managing expectations salary expectations cultural differences the job search process as it applies to nonprofits an extensive bibliography of resources Reflecting the depth and breadth of the nonprofit sector, the HBS Guide covers management careers in arts and culture, community economic development, education, environment, foundations, government, health care, international aid and economic development, social services, social purpose businesses, and socially responsible business/corporate community relations. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Work for nonprofits
I've just finished reading Stephanie Lowell's Careers in the Nonprofit Sector. I recommend it highly. Almost every page contains a profile about someone working with nonprofits. Lowell supports these profiles with thorough discussions of how to find work in nonprofits, why work for nonprofits, and what nonprofits are like.

About half of the book categorizes the nonprofits. I found these the most useful sections. They subdivide each sector, list the hot topics, discuss the roles for MBAs, present profiles, and provide addresses and web sites.

There is two recurring themes: the rewards of working for nonprofits and the importance of volunteering. Everyone working for a nonprofit or wanting to work for a nonprofit should read this book. ... 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. From the preeminent thinkers whose work has defined an entire field to the rising stars who will redefine the way we think about business, here are the leading minds and landmark ideas that have established the Harvard Business Review as required reading for ambitious businesspeople in organizations around the globe.

This collection features the latest breakthroughs in strategy from some of the most pre-eminent names in the field.

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Reviews (2)

Great insigh! The role of executives in alliance management
There are so many literatures about strategic alliance for practitioner and academics. But few book are really useful for us. My message is just BUY IT. This is nothing but Great! You know what? This research was completed in 1995 and 5year has passed ...then still shining and definitely the mile stone of strategic alliance and cooperative strategy field, I believe. They begin with defining the notion of new types of alliances form 90s and make it clear how drastically the competitive situation changed and what the source of competitive advantage is. That's the entrepreneurial role of top managemant and alliance manager. Competitive advantage of alliancing corporation doesn't come from poor analysis of resources, invisible assets or core competence. The point is relationship between partners. And the greatest point of this book is not only pointing out the importance of "relationship management" of alliance but also ...wow that's enough.. Just BUY IT!

Please read this book if you're serious about joint ventures
This is the best book I know of for understanding how to create and manage a successful strategic alliance.
There is so much redundant business literature out there on this subject that it is such a relief to finally have one good source.
The great thing about this book was that it forced me to think about how competitive strategy and analysis should be the driver of any well conceived strategic alliance.
I cannot think of another book that has so skillfully integrated these two highly related disciplines in such a practical way.

If anyone knows of anyother books or articles that these authors have written on this subject can you please let me know via email? ... Read more

Reviews (6)

You never stop learning
I checked this book out for a project I was doing in school on work stress. I never realized that the person who always seems to calm a situation down in the office could be holding in and dealing with so much. The peacekeeper of the group could actually need someone to vent on and some peace of mind themselves. It opened my eyes to a few things and the situation with "Harry" was a perfect example of an overworked person who has lost his job control. If you work in or have worked in any coporation or office job I recommend you read this book.

Compassionate research on the topic of compassion and pain
"Toxic emotions at work: how compassionate managers handle pain and conflict" is quite a remarkable book in the field organization and management research. First of all, it is as much a book for people in organizations as it is a book for people studying such organizations. And second, it is a book about the role and actions of heart in organizations, which speaks to your heart as well as about it. In this way, it is a groundbreaking piece of research in its form as well as in its content.

Through personal stories shared by people from a wide array of organizations, as well as by the author himself, we are invited as readers to get the inside view on life in such organizations. And the journey takes place through the lens of a hitherto largely invisible or hidden topic: the role of compassion and suffering in organizational life. We see how pain and conflicts are handled by people, who work like amateurs at a radioactive site, to quote one of many metaphors in this book. This is an example of living research about what really matters in organizations, putting the spot light on questions of life and death, pain and suffering, compassion and courage, hope and fear, comfort and despair, trust and betrayal.

As the book is written, so to speak, from the line of fire, with many examples of first-hand experience of the topic, it is impossible not to be captured and moved by the stories shared. The phenomenon of toxic handling and pain and suffering becomes very real. Of great value to the field of organizational theory is also the emphasis on all aspects of the human being, not just our social and communicative capacities. Physical, emotional and spiritual strengths and capacities are also discussed and brought to the reader's attention, aspects of which there has been a call in organizational research, in its tendency to treat people as "walking heads".

It is also research which I think, when read in-depth, challenges and questions many elements of contemporary, dominate business ideologies. What will happen when the task of toxic handling is both rewarded and seen in organizations, and when toxic handling is a standard question on the agendas of board meetings? And what would have to change in our cultural framework for that to happen? What will happen when the emotional aspects of organizational life are not only treated as an opportunity or problem for management, and enhancement of productivity? When they are given the space to exist in their own right, and for their own right? These are vital questions for the future in many organizations where there is a struggle for survival today.

In naming this phenomenon, and creating a legitimate language around it, there is the possibility to create new realities in organizations as well. In calling this phenomenon toxic handling, and in showing how research can be an endeavour of compassion also in its form and presentation, Peter J Frost and his colleagues create new perspectives, new frames and new questions for research.

There are, as I have said, many deeply moving stories in this book, especially the author's openness in writing about his own experience and how this led him into this research. It is research, as I said earlier with the power of touching your heart, not just speak about it. I will share one beautiful extract, which touched my heart, to give a sense of the wisdom and knowledge shared on these 250 pages. It is a quote from a dialogue with Dadi Janki, a woman from India, 80 years old, who was one of ten 'wisdom keepers' at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, 1992.

"Her stated goal in life is to be of benefit to each person she meets and to turn her thoughts to help lift them into happiness. (...) When asked how she stays in such a state of joy and happiness in the face of the suffering of others, she said: 'I do not identify with the pain of the other person. I do not take it on! When pressed for an explanation, she replied: 'To take it on would be to double the amount of pain the world!' 'How then do you help?' was the next question. 'I try to wrap the other person's suffering in love, she replied." (Frost 2003: 107).

This is toxin handling in action. And to live healthier lives in healthier organizations we still need to learn. Peter Frost helps us a step on the way in naming an aspect of life we all know, but many have been afraid to speak of.

Apt metaphor for common experience
I picked up this book because I am familiar with the author from days when I, then firmly planted in the academic world, assigned his articles to graduate students learning to do research. I knew his academic credentials are impeccable and I was prepared to trust what he wrote. And that, I think, accounts for the success of Toxic Emotions.

Toxic Emotions covers ground that has been worked before. Workplace pain has been discussed by self-help authors ("working wounded") and academics who have studied burnout and stress. Frost's remedies also remain conventional: get exercise, stay detached, be positive, find space outside work.

The willingness of executives to explore feelings is no longer new either. See Marsha Sinetar's The Mentor's Spirit and Mark Albion's Making a Life, Making a Living. And I once heard a speaker insist that therapy was no longer a taboo topic. "Everybody either has been in therapy or has a family member in therapy," he said.

The book's contribution comes from integrating these topics and putting them together and offering a research rather than a self-help context. The "toxin" medical metaphor offers a creative context to explore workplace pain and make the topic more accessible to those skeptical of new age "woo-woo."

Toxic Emotions seems directed entirely to managers and focuses on what managers can and "should" do --
and that's both the strength and limitation of the book. Employees are depicted as passive victims who need management intervention to survive.

Unfortunately, most people aren't as lucky as the clerk who was "rescued" from a toxic boss. They need to learn to protect themselves and take charge of their own lives.

And some very fine managers will never be able to function effectively as healers. I was surprised to see no reference to outside resources, such as coaches or consultants. I can understand the author's suspicion of the coaching industry (coaching schools tend to be atheoretical, to say the least) but carefully-selected coaches and consultants can often be less costly and more effective than managers whose gifts lie elsewhere. And, while confiding in a manager may bring short-term emotional relief, someday those confidences may backfire. Hiring a coach seems cheap if the only alternative is to risk your career by being too open.

Consultants can also help managers and employees implement Frost's suggestions. For example, they can teach employees to develop positive attitudes and create more balance in their lives. Saying "Just get a grip!" works well with some people but others remain clueless -- and some, temperamentally, cannot just shed their frustrations the way they shake water out of an umbrella. They need to learn to compensate or find a new workplace -- both time-consuming options that call for one-on-one learning experiences.

We also need to consider the bigger picture. All organizations may contain the potential for developing toxins. Even Southwest Airlines has been sued by an employee who felt victimized by an overzealous prank. And some employees are more susceptible to toxicity, just as some sneeze more during allergy season.

I suspect a large amount of workplace pain comes from feeling trapped, a source not mentioned here . We need not just empathetic managers but an infrastructure to support alternatives to corporate employment.

The absence of cultural support and societal infrastructure to support self-employment, discussed by Pink (Free Agent Nation) and Bridges (JobShift), accounts for a large part of workplace pain.

There's a bit of irony in the book's opening anecdote. The author learns he has cancer -- from a call his oncologist makes on a Friday night!

Frost was set up for a weekend of helpless worry. Couldn't the call wait till Monday morning, when he could at least go into action right away or at least get an emergency appointment with a therapist? A reminder that toxic systems exist in every sector -- so taken for granted that the author doesn't even comment.

Mind and heart, Ideal and practice
I really enjoyed reading this book. It is written with a rare blend of mind and heart, and it is thus both thought provoking and moving. The book flows-by with a genuine tone of care and empathy -- actually, a wonderful example of the kind of attitude that Peter Frost is campaigning for.

The book created for me an opportunity to reflect upon my own life and work experiences, and I felt Frost managed to involve me, the reader, in the lives of the many people he talked with (and about).

I was also impressed by the way Frost managed to put together discussion that cuts
through a variety of disciplines, weaving them all into a convincing argument -- taken up from different perspectives and using various levels of analysis. Thus, on the individual level, the book explores the experiences of emotional pain in organizational lives, the work of "toxin handlers" - people who help others to struggle with this pain; and the toll such efforts put on the toxin handlers themselves. On the organization level, the book offers a thorough exploration of the sources of toxicity in organizations, and how organizations can work to reduce toxicity and help toxin handlers in their efforts to heal pain. All in all, Frost manages to integrate and share with his readers much knowledge from Psychology, Biology, Organizational studies and Business (to name just a few disciplines) - and the book still makes an easy and interesting read!

In sum, I think this is really a great book. It deals with an important phenomenon - pain in organizations - an experience known to us all. It deals with it with a blend of realism (recognizing that organizations will always produce pain), and optimism (a compassionate way of life, and compassionate organizations can elevate the pain); and of ideals (compassion) and practicality (offering concrete ways to handle pain). It's message should be heard, I think, not only in today's workplaces, but in our Western society at large.

An essential book for working with emotion and compassion
The title is pretty self-explanatory, and the book is a marvelous description of an emerging phenomenon that results from complex and challenging work environments. The notion of toxic organizations isn't new, everyone has a story about one. What is new is the way leaders and managers are trying to deal with toxicity in organizations. As more and more managers develop their authenticity at work, they become more and more open to the swirling currents of emotion that surround them. Mangers who help to manage these currents in organizations become "toxin handlers" and require a whole set of strategies aimed at preserving their health and the health and compassion of the organization.

This book opens up a whole new side to management, leadership and action with purpose. It's based on stories of actual practice and contains tools and discussion aimed at increasing the capacity of organizations and people to lead with compassion in times of rapid and emotionally exhausting change. ... Read more

Book Description

The Results-Driven Manager Series

Managers are under increasing pressure to deliver better results faster than the competition. But meeting today's tough challenges requires complete mastery of a full array of management skills, from communicating and coaching to public speaking and managing people. The Results-Driven Manager series is designed to help time-pressed managers hone and polish the skills they need most. Concise, action-oriented, and packed with invaluable strategies and tools, these timely guides will help managers improve their job performance today-and give them the edge they need to become the leaders of tomorrow.

Managing Yourself for the Career You Want

• Create and capitalize on new opportunities for advancement
• Find mentors and boost networking skills
• Enhance personal emotional intelligence
• Evaluate future job prospects
• Stay on a rewarding career track

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. From the preeminent thinkers whose work has defined an entire field to the rising stars who will redefine the way we think about business, here are the leading minds and landmark ideas that have established the Harvard Business Review as required reading for ambitious businesspeople in organizations around the globe.

With offerings ranging from the timeless classic "Management Time Who's Got the Monkey" to innovative, cutting edge ideas, this book provides busy managers with strategies for more effective time and stress management, and offers insights into what a manager's job really entails. This is a must read for any professional wanting to work more effectively and become a better manager.

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Amazon.com

Harvard Business School professor Rosabeth Moss Kanter is the Eartha Kitt of change-management gurus. Just when you think the grand dame has taken her final bow, she comes bounding back onto the scene with a new act that's as shrewd and insightful as anything any young kitten has to offer--but benefiting from decades of wisdom and experience that puts the whole litter to shame. Take, for instance, Evolve!, Kanter's latest in a string of highly influential books on organizational management (including Innovation, World Class, When Giants Learn to Dance, and The Change Masters). Yes, the ubiquitous dot (as in "com") after the E in "Evolve" on the book's cover may suggest to the cynical that this is another old-school change guru weighing in with the obligatory guide to making it on the Net--and months after e-commerce mania has subsided, to boot! And granted, the thumbnail keys to successful I-preneuring that form the book's structure--namely, a willingness to improvise, a desire to network aggressively with other sites, a readiness to create "integrated communities," and a commitment to creating a workplace culture that attracts and retains the best talent--aren't necessarily breakthrough insights, however cogently presented.

But Evolve! stands out among the vast spate of e-commerce how-tos of the past few years because of the meticulous, rigorous research on the part of Kanter and her legion of Harvard Business associates. Here, coupled with Kanter's always-keen prose, that research translates into perhaps the most vivid, probing, and instructive anthology of e-commerce success (and failure) stories yet to appear in one book. Kanter & Co. conducted over 300 interviews, plus surveys with nearly three times as many companies worldwide, to tease out their conclusions on what works and what doesn't when doing business online--with brash start-ups as well as brick-and-mortar giants. That serious-minded, Harvard-quality sleuthing is reflected in the long narratives that make up the meat of the book, detailing the complete online journeys of some of the world's most high-profile companies, from venerable offliners venturing online (among them, Arrow Electronics, Barnes & Noble, NBC, Hewlett-Packard, Honeywell, IBM, Williams-Sonoma, and Sun) to the Net-born (Amazon, eBay, Razorfish, EarthWeb, iXL, Renren.com, and Abuzz, which clearly emerges here as Kanter's pet model of how to do it right in entrepreneurial cyberspace).If you've followed the start-up scene with eagle eyes every day for the past five years, you might already be familiar with these companies' twisting, turning story lines. If, more likely, you haven't, you're in for some illuminating object lessons on what works (and what doesn't) on the precarious, often uncharted terrain of e-commerce--not to mention some really good reading.

Shortly before Evolve! went to press, Kanter added two new chapters to address the latest changes in the e-commerce market. That's a valuable update, but even if she'd skipped the postscript, Evolve! is blessedly free of reckless cybermania. And, unlike many such dot-com how-tos, it's wise enough to know that, far from having completely rewritten the rules of good business, the callow world of e-commerce has much to learn from the offline forbears it often scoffs at. For these reasons, the observations and advisories in Evolve! should transcend the inevitable fluctuations of the e-commerce market in the years to come.In other words, this is the real thing: smart, deeply researched advice from a pro whose talents are evident on every page. Well, except for the rap lyrics she's penned for "Evolve!--The Song," which kick off the book, and run along such lines: "You're not alone, so start placing your bet/On finding lots of partners throughout the Net!" Cole Porter she's not. Then again, maybe they wouldn't sound so lame if only we could get that other old pro, Eartha Kitt, to slip into her catsuit and purr her way through them. --Timothy Murphy ... Read more

Reviews (38)

The History of Today's Internet
In the genre of e-commerce handbooks Evolve! does not give all the answers. There is no blueprint step by step process to Internet success that is outlined in her writings. Rather, the book presents a view of the correct culture, and outlook of a successful e-business. Social interactions are modified, and conflict is encouraged. In the end the focus is then shifter to the individual who is reading the book. Attention is given to the qualities of an effective leader in a fast changing internet environment where one must be a salesman and visionary while keeping track of concrete deadlines. Evolve! also has a large collection of research to back its claims. The Author, Rosabeth Moss Kanter, is a Harvard professor with a multitude of graduate students at her disposal. This gives her book a large amount of data and research into the various companies that have shaped the Internet and the world of e-business. It divides the players into the categories of Dotcoms, Dotcom Enablers, and Wannadots. It also shows the mistakes, and changes that occurred when the market leaders were first developing their focuses and strategies. To me the greatest aspect of the book is the in-depth historical perspective on the last four years in Silicon Valley. Big players, and company insiders give valuable information on their struggles to become the market leaders. The information is current, the background information is informative, and its message is useful.

Kaleidoscopic View of Successfully Connected e-Cultures!
Rosabeth Moss Kanter is one of our finest thinkers about organizational change. In Evolve!, she has taken on a very large challenge. She attempts to help the young and the old, the e-hip and the offline, the techies and the nontechies, and those in new economy and old economy companies understand one another better so they can cooperate for greater results through using the Internet as an enabling medium. She also takes a look at beneficial cultures separately from the perspectives of pure dot com companies, dotcom-enablers (like Sun Microsystems), and wannadots (already-established companies seeking to add the Internet to their businesses). In the process, she provides lots of helpful examples of what NOT TO DO, as well as what TO DO both in terms of what kind of organization to create and how to get there. I found that the book added a great deal to my storehouse of case histories about what has been working and what has not as companies have sought to develop and improve Internet-based business models. Unlike most books about the Internet, this one was primarily based on lots of research with people at companies rather than lots of experience in using cool Web sites.

The book is divided into three parts. The first section looks at how the Internet affects every business and person, the role of young people to date in advancing the changes, and why companies have to do more than just open a web site to be effective. Basically, the Internet means a fundamental change in at least part of every company's business model. For some companies, this is a complete change. For others, it is a partial, but significant change. Cisco Systems provides a good example. You can be a major provider of high technology products while having very little manufacturing youself. Dell Computer is another helpful example. You can have negative receivables and no inventory while manufacturing products to order in minutes. Anyone would like to be able to move profitably in these directions.

The second section identifies the qualities that allow a company's culture to work well in e-commerce. Professor Kanter focuses here on the need to create generations of rapid change each of which is well received by the beneficiaries, how to create truly supportive and effective networks of partners, reconfiguring the business and organizational structure to improve the business model, and attracting and retaining the top talent needed to make these improvements.

The third section looks at initiating and enabling the change process towards the model of e-effectiveness. The roles of leaders, organizations, and of individuals are identified . . . as well as the sources of friction and resistance.

I thought that the book was exceptionally well done. It's weaknesses come from having taken on such a large topic and challenge. But Professor Kanter succeeds in most areas quite well.

Those who work in dot com companies that are facing bankruptcy will not find enough here to help them sort through their issues. Those who want to establish a new dot com from scratch also will find this book to be useful, but not a complete resource for that purpose (as Professor Kanter warns in the book). The book was primarily researched while the dot com companies were flush with cash and valuations on the stock market were still quite high. So, although there are references to stocks falling after March 2000, the book reflects in many ways a world that doesn't exactly exist right now for dot com companies.

For dotcom-enablers, they will get a few ideas about how to satisfy the need to keep revitalizing their business model. But most of this will not seem new to them, if they have been at all successful.

For wannadots, this book will help lift the veil of how to get from here to there. The main benefit will be to help avoid problems that others have experienced. You can save tens of millions of dollars and start delivering benefits to your customers much sooner if you follow the change lessons here. The senior executives in these companies should be the prime beneficiaries of this book . . . the Harvard B-School grads of a few years ago, or more.

Metaphors are very helpful for understanding new subjects. The metaphors here, although apt, are ones that many readers will not find to be very much within their experience. For that reason, the points will be a bit lost. For example, the idea of continuing innovating and creating rapid improvements is linked to what improvisational actors do. I have had some improvisational training, so this made sense to me (see Robert Lowe's book, Improvisation, Inc.). I do not know many corporate executives in large companies however who do have this experience. I suspect this metaphor will be lost on them. Some of the other metaphors also lack an experience base for most readers, as well.

A potential weakness of this book for some readers is that they will not get enough information for how to identify ways to create more profitable and sustainable business models. To date, most Internet innovations have led to lower profits . . . not higher ones -- whether they came from dot coms, dotcom-enablers, or dotcome wannabes. If more skill is not applied in this important area of conceptualizing what the new structure of the business should become, you may evolve . . . but not into any place where you want to be.

Reading this book today, you'd have to say that if you are not going to be a dotcom enabler, you'd better watch out.

About the author...
This review is not so much about the book but rather about the author. I had the chance to have Rosabeth Moss Kanter as a Professor for a semester last year while doing an MBA at Harvard. She has an extraordinary personality, full of passion, full of colors and surprises. A fresh, insightful and pragmatic perspective of the world. A Grand lady who constantly evolves with her time. In my opinion, that's why her books, and Evolve! in particular, are so well written and so inspirational for all of us. Grand books are the reflect of Grand personalities. I cannot wait to get her new book "Confidence".

One sided observation rather than an Analysis
I thought the naration was terible on this CD, author was not to the point. More of a one sided observation presented as a story rather than a complete analysis.

Tomorrow Is Here, Albeit Briefly
Throughout human history, most revolutions share a common cause, a shared commitment, courage, passion, sacrifice, determination, and varying degrees of impact. Darwinists believe that all organisms participate in a process of natural selection. In the 21st century, organizations (like organisms) must therefore initiate or respond effectively to revolutions inorder to survive. That is, they must recognize major developments (what Kuhn calls "paradigm shifts," what Grove calls "inflection points," and what Gladwell calls "tipping points"), preferably before they begin. Meanwhile, prudence dictates that these organizations carefully select their terms of engagement with their competition, allocating their resources with great care.

I recently re-read e•Volve, curious to learn how relevant it remains in light of what has (and has not) happened since it was first published early last year. My conclusion is that it is even more relevant now than it was then. The material is based on more than 300 interviews, a survey of more than 700 companies, and various case studies developed at the Harvard Business School. Kanter and her research associates analyzed a combination of traditional companies (e,g, Arrow, Barnes & Noble, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, and Sun Microsystems) and what are generally referred to as "dot coms" (e.g. Amazon, EarthWeb, eBay, and Razorfish) to determine how these companies attempted to achieve success in "the digital culture of tomorrow."

It would be a disservice to Kanter as well as to those who read this review to summarize the tentative conclusions which Kanter shares. (Read the book and you'll understand why such conclusions are necessarily tentative.) For me, the greater value of this book (and of all others she has written, notably When Giants Learn to Dance and Innovation) is derived from the questions she asks rather than from the answers she offers. No one else asks more probing questions than does Kanter. Why do some "revolutions" in business succeed and others fail? Which organizations (non-profits as well as for-profits) have either launched and then sustained successful "revolutions" or responded effectively to them? How and why? Within any organization, what must be allowed to "evolve," especially in today's competitive marketplace?

If you are a decision-maker now struggling to answer questions such as these, I highly recommend this book. With Kanter's expert assistance, you can determine which are the most important questions your own organization must ask. She will also assist the immensely difficult process of obtaining answers to those questions. That said, I presume to offer one final word of caution, one with which I hope Kanter agrees: At all times keep in mind that both questions and answers are transient. Whether circumstances e•volve or re•volve, they change and often do so at the most inconvenient time. ... Read more

Book Description

To be effective, managers have to be skilled at acquiring power-and using that power to persuade others to get things done. This guide offers must-know methods for commanding attention, changing minds, and influencing decision-makers up and down the organizational ladder.

P>The New Manager's Guide and Mentor

The Harvard Business Essentials series is designed to provide comprehensive advice, personal coaching, background information, and guidance on the most relevant topics in business. Whether you are a new manager seeking to expand your skills or a seasoned professional looking to broaden your knowledge base, these solution-oriented books put reliable answers at your fingertips.

... Read more

Book Description

The Internet, globalization, and hypercompetition are dramatically reshaping markets and changing the way business is done. The problem, says internationally renowned marketer Philip Kotler and his coauthors Dipak C. Jain and Suvit Maesincee, is that marketing has not kept pace with the markets. In today's world, customers are scarce-not products-and classic marketing needs to be deconstructed, redefined, and broadened to reflect this new reality.

Marketing Moves describes the next transformational imperative for marketing-and for any organization competing in our customer-ruled, technology-driven marketplace. It calls for a fundamental rethinking of corporate strategy to enable the ongoing creation and delivery of superior value for customers in both the marketplace and the marketspace. And it appoints marketing as the lead driver in shaping and implementing this new strategy.

The means for accomplishing this lies in a radically new marketing paradigm the authors call holistic marketing-a dynamic concept derived from the electronic connectivity and interactivity among companies, customers, and collaborators. This new paradigm combines the best of traditional marketing with new digital capabilities to build long-term, mutually satisfying relationships and co-prosperity among all key stakeholders.

Outlining a framework for implementing holistic marketing that calls for integrating customer demand management, internal and external resource allocation, and network collaboration-the authors show how holistic marketing can enable companies to:

- Identify new value opportunities for renewing their markets

- Efficiently create the most promising new value offerings

- Deliver products, services, and experiences that more precisely match individual customer requirements

- Consistently operate at the highest level of product quality, service, and speed

Thought-provoking and practical, Marketing Moves shows how to build a complete marketing platform primed for the challenges and opportunities of a customer-centric world.

... Read more

Reviews (4)

One Among Many
The book begins with great promise with the authors doing a great job of capturing the impact of the internet, globalization and hyper-competition on the concept of marketing.

The authors introduce a new marketing paradigm called holistic marketing, and present a "holistic marketing" framework. The rest of the book is devoted to describing various elements of this framework.

The book dissappoints from the point this new framework is presented. It ends up being a compilation of information on business systems and applications for customer-centric marketing. The latter half of the book lacks depth. All said, the book doesn't stand apart from some of the others on this subject and is one among many.

High level thinking and writing on marketing
The book provides a brilliant and easily digestable historical overview of "old" and "new" marketing and corporate strategy. Upon this foundation the book describes the current state of commerce and makes reccommendations for successful corporate strategy.
If you have read several marketing related books, the material may not seem revolutionary; however, the writing and clear thinking in this book puts it in a league of its own and creats its value. The book very effectively synthesizes history, theory, and the current state of corporate strategy and notably enhanced my thinking on marketing.

Interesting but not extraordinary
Clearly when one looks at the book authors, expectations get really high.

What I find really interesting is the new marketing paradigm that they propose, which focuses on a holistic marketing framework that encompases: looking at value from three perspectives (value exploration, value creation and value delivery) and looking at managing activities from three dimensions (demand, resource and partners) in order to create your market offer, business architecture, marketing activities, and operational system that drive profitability.

The issue is that discussions are too focused on e-business and don't provide much detail. For example, it touches different ideas such as CRM, One-to-One Marketing, Permission Marketing, customer loyalty, and Life Time Value but they don't disscuss them thoroughly.

I recommend it so you can understand how your marketing philosophy should be evolving based on their new marketing paradigm and how it links to other ideas, but be careful because you won't find much detail. Don't expect too much or you might be dissapointed.

Nothing New
This book has focused too much on E-commerce.It does not provide something new on the issue of strategic marketing.I feel disappointed with the famous author. ... Read more

Book Description

This book provides an overview of the various approaches to change management, provides assessments and tools for preparing employees and the organization for a change initiative, and offers strategies for successfully managing the human and business aspects of the transformation as it rolls out.

Today's HR professionals work side by side with senior executives to devise a strategy for their organizations and to marshal the talent and resources to implement it. That means going beyond the traditional HR domain and mastering the fundamentals of all aspects of business and management. The Business Literacy for HR Professionals series, developed in conjunction with the Society for Human Resource Management, is designed to help HR professionals do exactly that. Covering essential areas such as negotiation, decision making, change management, finance, and more, these highly practical books will help HR professionals in their goal to be true strategic partners who bring additional bottom line value to their organizations. ... Read more

Book Description

Breakthrough Study Reveals Established Companies Can Produce Radical, Game-Changing Innovation.Here's How.

How many big businesses have pioneered the technologies and business models that now dominate e-commerce, personal computing, biotechnology, and wireless telecommunication? Answer: hardly any. The problem is not that executives fail to recognize the need to infuse their organizations with the kind of model-busting innovative capabilities of agile startups. It's a lack of understanding of what to do and how to do it.

But now, this groundbreaking book reveals the patterns through which game-changing innovation occurs in large, established companies, and identifies the new managerial competencies firms need to make radical innovation happen. The authors define a radical innovation project as one that delivers a product, process, or service with either unprecedented performance features, or with familiar features that will enable market transformation through significant performance improvements or cost reductions. These projects are nurtured within the established organization, not skunkworks.They are not concerned with exploiting current lines of business, but with exploring entirely new ones.

Based on evidence from a five-year, real time study of twelve radical innovation projects within ten major corporations-including General Electric, IBM, Nortel Networks, DuPont, and Texas Instruments-this book addresses seven managerial challenges large companies face in creating and sustaining radical innovation: (1) dealing with radical ideas in the "fuzzy front end"; (2) developing new models for project management; (3) learning about unfamiliar markets; (4) working through uncertainty in the business model; (5) bridging resource and competency gaps; (6) managing the transition from radical project to operating status; and (7) engaging individual initiative.

The authors, experts in a variety of areas such as entrepreneurship, R&D management, product design, marketing, organizational behavior, and operations and project management, distill a comprehensive, interdisciplinary approach to mastering each of these challenges, from the conceptualization of viable ideas to the commercialization of radical innovations. Designed to push the envelope of thinking about the most significant challenge facing large companies today, this important book offers a revolutionary new paradigm for long-term corporate success.

... Read more

Reviews (3)

Innovation = Respiration
I think this book will have the greatest value if read in combination with Yoffie and Kwak's Judo Strategy. Why? Because the authors of that book correctly stress the importance of maximizing organizational speed, agility, balance, and leverage in any competitive marketplace. What they do not address (except perhaps indirectly or by implication) is the importance of radical innovation which, more often than not, proves to be a decisive competitive advantage. Indeed, the seven authors of the book I am about to review identify "Seven Challenges in Managing Radical Innovation" (see Table 1-1 on page 8) and meeting these challenges effectively indeed requires maximizing organizational speed, agility, balance, and leverage. Obviously, no single volume asks all "the right questions," much less provides "all the right answers." Hence the importance of carefully correlating the ideas from several different sources. I also strongly Michael Hammer's The Agenda which offers a "model" by which decision-makers in any organization (regardless of its size or nature) can determine appropriate priorities and then set appropriate objectives before formulating strategies and tactics by which to achieve those objectives.

The subtitle of this book ("How Mature Companies Can Outsmart Upstarts") reminds me of Jack Welch's comments when explaining why he admires "small and sleek" companies:

"For one, they communicate better. Without the din and prattle of bureaucracy, people listen as well as talk; and since there are fewer of them they generally know and understand each other. Second, small companies move faster. They know the penalties for hesitation in the marketplace. Third, in small companies, with fewer layers and less camouflage, the leaders show up very clearly on the screen. Their performance and its impact are clear to everyone. And, finally, smaller companies waste less. They spend less time in endless reviews and approvals and politics and paper drills. They have fewer people; therefore they can only do the important things. Their people are free to direct their energy and attention toward the marketplace rather than fighting bureaucracy."

For those who seek radical innovation in so-called "mature" companies, the challenges which the authors of this book identify are obviously much greater than they are for those in the "small and sleek" companies which Welch admires. A majority of upstarts pursue a "judo strategy" (in one form or another) because they lack the resources of their much larger competitors. (David had no chance if he wrestled Goliath.) For that reason, they cannot afford incremental innovation. They must take bold, decisive action when and where it will have the greatest impact.

When explaining what they call an "imperative," the authors of this book make a critically important distinction: "...incremental innovation usually emphasizes cost or feature improvements in existing products or services and is dependent on exploitation competencies. In contrast, radical innovation concerns the development of new businesses or product lines -- based on new ideas or technologies or substantial cost reductions -- that transform the economics of a business, and therefore require exploration competencies." This is indeed a key distinction.

Much of the material in this book was generated by the authors' research over a period of five years (1995-2000) which followed the development and commercialization activities of 12 radical innovation projects in 10 large, established ("mature") firms. For the authors, a radical innovation project must have the potential to produce one or more of these results: an entirely new set of performance features, improvements in known performance features of five times or greater, and/or a significant (i.e. 30% or more) reduction in cost. What the authors learned from the research serves as the foundation of their conclusions; also of what they recommend to those who seek radical innovation in their own organization. All of the ideas presented are anchored in an abundance of real-world experience. Although this brilliant book's greatest value may be derived by decision-makers in "mature" companies, I think substantial value can also be derived by decision-makers in the "upstarts" with which such companies as DuPont, General Electric, General Motors, IBM, and Texas Instruments will continue to compete. One final point: All of the "mature" companies discussed in this book were once "upstarts" themselves. How revealing that all of them are now so hard at work on regaining or preserving certain competitive advantages which once served them so well.

Superficial and non-comprehensive book
Having read this book two thoughts come up:
1. They should have had much more in-depth data, why stick so much to the surface ?
2. Is their overview of ways to deal with radical innovation comprehensive ?

Seen the impressive list of authors and the impressive research they've done the book is disappointing. Maybe because they were limited on what they could disclose, time pressure etc.

To learn more about dealing with radical innovation I recommend the books 'Corporate Venturing, 'Intrapreneuring', 'Webs of Innovation', 'The Innovators Dilemma'.

So should you read 'Radical Innovation ? Well if you're active in the field it should be on your shelves, otherwise I wouldn't spend my dollars on it.

GREAT Information for ALL companies - Upstart and Mature
Very succinct yet comprehensive. It has key advice on the marketing, finance, and people skills necessary to see a new idea advance to a great new product. This book should be required reading for all MBA students, managers, and anyone who has the dream of a great new idea but is unsure as to how to make it come real. Although the title states that the book focuses on how more established companies can create environments to promote radical innovations, the information can readily be applied to any firm regardless of length of operations - and yes, to individuals.

The authors present a list of 7 challenges that face the radical innovator and then they provide the competencies, or skills, that are necessary to meet these challenges. Throughout the text, real-life examples from well-known firms help the reader to understand how these challenges come about, and to even recognize a challenge should it present itself. The examples do tend to focus on radical innovations that are new technological products, but the recommendations could also be applied to other new ideas such as new management systems or organizational structures. ... Read more

Book Description

Ethnic Chinese control a staggering 98 percent of the East Asian economy outside Korea and Japan. For any company seeking to work with the Chinese, understanding the unique social and cultural values that underpin their commercial practices can make or break business dealings before they even get off the ground.

Ming-Jer Chen, a leading expert on business strategy and competition, offers Western managers the definitive guide to navigating the fascinating-but often confusing-Chinese business world. Drawing from his intimate knowledge of Chinese culture and history, and from his extensive managerial work and international experience, Chen provides an unrivalled insider's perspective on how to work, compete, and cooperate successfully with Chinese companies around the globe.

Inside Chinese Business explains that almost all major Chinese organizations are relationship-based and continue to be influenced by an enduring set of cultural and social principles. Building on this premise with examples from companies throughout Asia and North America, the book addresses issues including:

* Chinese "business families" and their transformation in the new century.
* Guanxi: what it is, how it works, and how Western managers can develop their own business networks.
* The influence of traditional Chinese concepts such as "face," balance, harmony, and social roles on contemporary business conduct.
* How to spot a yesno: understanding Chinese communication patterns.
* The Chinese distaste for "negotiation"-and how to negotiate with them.
* The cultural roots of Chinese competitive practices, and ways Western companies can successfully adapt these ideas.
* Navigating the People's Republic of China's transitional economy.
* Using cultural difference to develop a globally integrative business perspective.

A powerful guide to resolving the often overwhelming rifts between Western and Eastern ways of doing business, Inside Chinese Business presents critical lessons for global enterprise in the 21st century. ... Read more

Reviews (9)

Rehashed
Very little in this book is original. Even the title is borrowed from "Inside Chinese Organizations" written earlier by Kai-Alexander Schlevogt (a sound empirical study)! The style, emphasis and content is very similar to "New Asian Emperors" by George Haley and Chin Tiong Tan (a much better written book with a more complex grasp of the terrain of Chinese management).

The author does tackle some concepts such as "face" etc., but these provide very little insights for any but the most extreme novices.

Disappointing.

Not recommended
I agree with some of the reviewers below -- this book presents a complex topic in a very simplistic fashion. The concepts covered are very basic and almost naive.

Very naive and simplistic
Given the build up for this book, I found it very disappointing. It completely ignores the fact that most American companies have failed in China -- precisely following the strategies the author advocated! If you know very little about China, and have eaten at a Chinese restaurant a couple of times, this book should provide an easy introduction. Otherwise, pass on it! I would much rather recommend "New Asian Emperors: The Overseas Chinese, their Strategies and Competitive Advantages" by George T. Haley et al. for a more complex understanding of business culture in the region.

Disappointing...
I found this book a real disappointment, especially considering the author's apparent qualifications. It amounts to little more than a book report on other published sources and I actually see no evidence of "inside" information at all here. The author doesn't seem to have done a single personal interview for the book, which is unfortunate.

What's worse is that the book takes a chauvinistic approach to doing business with the Chinese. The essential advice here is that Western business people should never say no to Chinese counterparts and should accommodate them in every way possible. After doing business in Hong Kong and Guangzhou for more than 15 years, I fully understand the importance of "saving face": but this book advocates the kind of kowtowing that got many American companies into deep trouble in China...providing everything for their partners and losing their shirts. I am sure the author had honorable intentions but the point of view taken in this book is quite naive...if not dangerous.

That said, Inside Chinese Business is a quick and enjoyable read. If you have never read anything about Chinese business practices, it could be a useful introduction. Just take it with a grain of salt.

Simplistic and Dated
For anyone who has spent time in China (Hong Kong and Taiwan), or has read a book or two on business in Asia, much of the book will be simplistic to the point of being boring as it covers issues of "face", familial loyalty, reciprocity, etc. The impact of the Asian financial crisis is taken into account, but not the Nasdaq fall and subsequent worldwide tech slump. I imagine the author is just the victim of unfortunate timing, but several Asian tech companies, now dead and buried, are praised for their ability to navigate crises. Whoops.
There are lessons to be learned from a study like this, but the book strays dangerously close to the sort of blind fawning westerners saw of Japanese business in the late 80s and early 90s, before economic realities revealed the woeful shortcomings of Japan, Inc.
I have just begun reading another book, "The Coming Collapse of China"; while (so far) quite insular and anecdotal, it does provide a counter to what's quickly become an over-hyped view of China's future in global business.
I was expecting far more from "Inside Chinese Business", but perhaps the author will follow-up this work with a more in-depth study. ... Read more

Book Description

Breakthrough Research on Knowledge Transfer Reveals Five ProvenMethods for Making Knowledge Sharing a Reality-Which are Right for Your Company?

While external knowledge-about customers, about competitors-is critical, it rarely provides a competitive edge for companies because such information is equally available to everyone. But internal "know-how" that is unique to a specific company-how to introduce a new drug into the diabetes market, how to decrease assembly time in an automobile plant-is the stuff of which sustained competitive advantage is made. Nancy Dixon, an expert in the field of organizational learning, calls this knowledge borne of experience "common knowledge," and argues that in order to get beyond talking about knowledge management to actually doing it, companies must first recognize that all knowledge is not created-and therefore can't be shared-equally.

Creating successful knowledge transfer systems, Dixon argues, requires matching the type of knowledge to be shared to the method best suited for transferring it effectively. Based on an in-depth study of several organizations-including Ernst & Young, Bechtel, Ford, Chevron, British Petroleum, Texas Instruments, and the U.S. Army-that are leading the field in successful knowledge transfer, Common Knowledge reveals groundbreaking insights into how organizational knowledge is created, how it can be effectively shared-and why transfer systems work when they do.

Until now, most organizations have had to rely on costly "trial and error" to find a knowledge transfer system that works for them. Dixon helps managers take the guesswork out of this process by outlining three criteria that must be considered in order to determine how a transfer method will work in a specific situation: the type of knowledge to be transferred, the nature of the task, and who the receiver of that knowledge will be. Drawing from the successful-but very different-practices of the companies in her study and providing compelling illustrative stories based on the experiences of real managers, Dixon distills five distinct categories of knowledge transfer, explains the principles that make each of them work, and helps managers determine which of these systems would be most effective in their own organizations.

Common Knowledge gets to the heart of one of the most difficult questions in knowledge transfer today:What makes a system work effectively in one organization but fail miserably in another? Going beyond "one-size-fits-all" approaches and simple generalities like upper management involvement and cultural issues, this important book will help organizations of every kind construct knowledge transfer systems tailored to their unique forms of "common knowledge"-and in the process create the best kind of competitive advantage there is: the kind that can't be copied. ... Read more

Reviews (21)

All of Us Know More Than Any One of Us Does
Dixon does indeed explain HOW companies thrive by sharing what they know. (She apparently agrees with Derek Bok, former president of Harvard, when responding to irate parents after a tuition increase: "If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.") In her Introduction, she identifies three myths (or assumptions about the idea of knowledge sharing: (1) build it and they will come (the so-called "Field of Dreams Syndrome"), (2) technology can replace face-to-face, and (3) first you have to create a learning culture. "Many of the organizations I studied started with one or more of these assumptions and then had to make corrections to get back on track." She then explains why each myth or assumption is either wrong or inadequate. After that, she observes: My major goal in writing this book is to broaden readers' thinking about how a company might share knowledge. Therefore I discuss many ways in which real companies have successfully transferred knowledge....Another goal is to help readers figure out which of these many systems [subsequently analyzed] would be most effective in their own settings -- how to tell whether BP's Peer Assist would be more effective than Ford's Best Practice Replication." All this in the Introduction (!) which serves as the first of the nine chapters within which her material is organized.

The objective of Dixon's study of ten organizations (ranging from Bechtel to the U.S. Army) was to understand why some knowledge transfer systems are effective...and why others are not. Eventually, she concluded that "These organizations know a great deal about how...but much less about why." Moreover, "Organizations like the ones I have written about in this book, that are on the leading edge of knowledge transfer have been learning on their own, primarily through trial and error." To which I presume to add, that we must understand how to learn if any knowledge (about anything else) is to be gained. Moreover, there are also quite specific skills required when helping others to learn what we know. In her book, Dixon provides a wealth of information which includes cases and examples, a "synthesis that retains the separate voices of the examples", "stories" which preserve the emotions and values of people involved. general principles derived from the cases, and an "articulation" of the reasoning behind the various categories (eg absorptive capacity) inorder to reveal the WHY behind the categories. Those who share my high regard for this book are urged to check out Peter Senge's The Fifth Discipline and his more recent The Dance of Change.

Our best guide to knowledge transfer
This is the best book available on knowledge transfer. Based upon the author's deep understanding of organizational learning theory and her careful examination of the practices of major corporations, it offers clear definitions of five types of knowledge transfer, along with criteria, design guidelines, business drivers and potential barriers for each. Examples of each transfer type (from teams reviewing their actions in order to perform better together in a new setting to strategic learning and sharing of expert knowledge) are employed less to bolster a thesis than to illustrate how classifications were evolved and tested. Intelligently crafted categories based upon similarities of tasks and contexts, the nature of tasks, and knowledge type provide a framework for organizations to build a system for employing "common knowledge" for business objectives. Written with clarity and grace, this volume explores the power of metaphor and of the values of sharing, listening and trust, while developing our most practical guide for integrating effective knowledge transfer into organizations' strategic architecture. Highly recommended.

A very useful taxonomy of knowledge transfer techniques
Looking for in-depth case studies of KM in action at large organisations? This book offers a superb collection and analysis of knowledge transfer techniques at companies like Ernst&Young, Bechtel, Ford, Chevron, British Petroleum, Texas Instruments, and the U.S. Army.

The material is divided into 9 chapters, and the writing style is very focused and precise. Useful flowcharts and checklists make the material a must-read for KM professionals and management strategists.

Dixon begins by deconstructing some common myths ' such as 'build it and they will come.' Knowledge transfer which is merely based on accumulating electronic databases will bring about neither appropriate contributions nor adequate retrievals; incentives, discipline, actionable results, alignment with objectives, and face-to-face communication are key requisites.

Going beyond broad generalizations of organizational knowledge management, the book focuses specifically on the issue of knowledge transfer, and identifies five key categories of lesson sharing in large companies: serial transfer, near transfer, far transfer, strategic transfer and expert transfer.

They differ in terms of who the intended knowledge receiver is (same or different from the source), the nature of the task involved (frequency and routine), and the type of knowledge being transferred (tacit/explicit).

One chapter each is devoted to the five kinds of transfer mechanisms, and two chapters tie all the material together in terms of guidelines for building knowledge transfer systems.

In serial transfer, the collective knowledge a team has gained from doing its task in one setting is transferred to the next time that the same team does the task in a different setting. The tasks are frequent, so meetings are held regularly and assessment questions are standardized.

In near transfer of explicit knowledge, the source and recipient teams are different ' but the tasks are quite similar. The tasks are routine; selected goal-oriented information is disseminated electronically, along with supplemental personal interaction; information usage is monitored and assessed.

In far transfer, the tacit knowledge a team gained from doing a non-routine task is made available to other teams doing similar work in another part of the organization. There is a reciprocal exchange of knowledge, and face-to-face meetings as well as movement of experts are involved.

Examples include BP's Peer Assist (initiated in 1994, to share experience in challenging areas like deciding whether to invest in a new rig; the transfer includes a visit to rig sites by peers), Chevron's Capital Project Management (with online forums as well as physical movement of project managers to spread learned lessons across the company), and Lockheed Martin's LM21 Best Practices (to identify and eliminate redundant facilities, capabilities and structures across its 30 subsidiaries; assessments were made of performance and financial performance).

Other examples include Japan's Dai-Ichi Pharmaceuticals, where researchers are expected to spend 20 minutes a day in 'talk rooms' where anyone can dialogue with them. 'Tacit knowledge can be transferred by moving the people who have the knowledge around. Calling on tacit knowledge is not just a memory task, it is as often an act of creation or invention,' says Dixon.

Top-level commitment to the process is called for. Some companies like Ernst&Young designate certain knowledgeable people as 'shared resources,' who spend a chunk of their time sharing their knowledge companywide.

Strategic transfer is called for when the collective knowledge of the organization is needed to accomplish a strategic task that occurs infrequently ' but is critical to the whole organization. The knowledge gathering is conducted during the actual operation; it can be expensive and resource-intensive, and also involves knowledge specialists who collect information, conduct interviews, videotape discussions, interpret the examples, and synthesise knowledge.

A useful methodology here is MIT's 'learning history' process, which results in a narrative document describing an event and incorporating quotes from multiple sources and even contradictory perspectives. The process should include subsequent reflective research and validation. These events need not have to be the 'best,' but will always have useful learnings.

The resulting documentation from strategic transfer can be disseminated on Intranets, and should have guidelines, checklists, people profiles, contact information, colourful overall narratives, records, and artifacts. Once created by KM specialists, the product is handed over to a community of practice that has the responsibility of keeping it current.

Expert transfer involves the transfer of explicit knowledge from an expert to someone who faces a problem beyond their current scope. Knowledge is pulled from the expert on demand, via threaded electronic forums to which support is dedicated for monitoring, escalation and support.

Examples include Buckman Lab's TechForums (started in 1992, monitored by librarians and sysops, and supported by editorial help in producing weekly summaries of discussions), Tandem Computer's Second Class Mail (for tech support), Chevron's Best Practices Resource Map (a yellow pages of employee resources), the World Bank's internal help line, and Ernst&Young's Knowledge Stewards. Online infrastructure is critical here for multinationals, and there can be infrastructure problems in developing countries.

In terms of RoI, Ford reportedly claims that US$34 million were saved in just one year by transferring ideas between Vehicle Operations plants; Texas Instruments saved enough from transferring knowledge between wafer fabrication plants to pay for building a whole new facility.

The books shows how each organization can have multiple ways of transferring knowledge, involving databases, response systems, monitoring, meetings, and dedicated KM staff. Appropriate audits of knowledge assets, knowledge gaps, existing knowledge flows, and critical processes need to be conducted, sometimes with external assistance.

As for branding knowledge transfer initiatives, Dixon observes that they often don't even mention the word 'knowledge' ' the emphasis is on words like peering, assistance, team building, and networking.

In sum, this book provides an excellent view of knowledge practices right from the trenches of companies at the cutting edge of KM. The inductive analysis and roadmaps for implementing knowledge transfer are essential reading for knowledge professionals in all manner of large organizations.

>>>>>>>

Madanmohan Rao is the author of "The Asia-Pacific Internet Handbook" and can be reached at madan@inomy.com

Read This Before Foisting KM on Your Org....
In presenting alternative systems of knowledge sharing, and their strengths and weakenesses for the types, times, and range of knowledge, Dixon's best contribution is to guide the reader from following certain dead-ends, though not necessarily ensuring a success down the right path.

This book, though incredibly well-written in clarity and focus, is not so practical for the working manager faced with creating a "KM Solution" that will stick, as it is for those task forces and executives thinking about KM solutions and wanting to avoid mistakes - oh so common in today's organizations!

So, if you are looking for high-level descriptions of the various systems of knowledge sharing, their strenghts and weakenesses, the cases in the book are lively, thought-provoking, and interesting to follow along.

Cashing in on "Common Knowledge"
The author focuses on only one type of the many possible types of knowledge that reside in a workplace: the knowledge that employees learn from doing the organization's tasks. She terms this kind of knowledge as "Common Knowledge" to differentiate it from book knowledge or from lists of regulations or data bases of customer information.
The author puts high value to this type of knowledge because it is unique to a specific company. This specificity in turn gives the knowledge gained from experience the potential to provide an organization with a competitive edge. The author points out that although other types of knowledge - such as, customer information and competitor intelligence - must be made widely available; they have less potential to provide a competitive advantage because the same knowledge is equally available to compet