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The Knowledge Advantage

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The Knowledge Advantage

14 Visionaries Define Marketplace Success in the New Economy

Capstone,

15 min read
10 take-aways
Text available

What's inside?

Knowledge management is not just technology — it’s complex, messy and critical to your future.

Editorial Rating

8

Qualities

  • Innovative
  • Applicable

Recommendation

Editors Dan Holtshouse and Rudy Ruggles bring together 14 experts on knowledge management, including Peter Drucker, Alan Webber of Fast Company magazine and Stephen Denning of The World Bank. The best thing - and worst thing - about this compendium is that it is an anthology. Positively, it serves the unique purpose of offering an introduction to different views. If something piques your interest, you can investigate it further. But, unfortunately, you may be disappointed by a problem endemic to anthologies: lack of in-depth analysis. The book’s four sections focus on the role of knowledge individually and strategically (in two theoretical chapters) and on knowledge’s role on an organizational and economic level (in two more practical discussions). This is not a "how to" book about leveraging intellectual capital. Instead, getAbstract recommends it as a brief history of the evolution of knowledge in the context of the working world.

Summary

Introduction

The subheads below indicate the authors of the abstracted passages: Alan Webber of Fast Company; Ikujiro Nonaka of the University of California at Berkeley, the World Bank’s Stephen Denning and Dr. Bob Bauer of Xerox PARC. Edward O. Wilson, Peter Drucker, Christopher A. Bartlett, James Brian Quinn, Stan Davis, Professor Karl-Erik Sveiby, W. Brian Arthur, Lester Thurow and Chris Meyer wrote the book’s remaining chapters.

Alan Webber, Fast Company

I have a quibble with the title of this book. Knowledge Advantage is too bloodless a phrase. These words make knowledge management sound like the latest fad, but knowledge management is actually revolutionizing the way we work. Just as in any war, there are two sides to managing knowledge: those who do it and those who say they are doing it. This generation has the talent to rethink the way we do business. But, we must not become victims of the dark side of this new economy, which consists of the cynicism, nihilism and hypocrisy that permeate the workplace, as characterized by mind games, manipulation and rules that bind people from exhibiting creativity when their companies claim to encourage it.

About the Authors

Rudy Ruggles  and Dan Holtshouse  edited and wrote the first chapter of The Knowledge Advantage. Ruggles works at the Ernst & Young Center for Business Innovation and is the author of Knowledge Management Tools. Holtshouse is director of corporate strategy knowledge initiatives at Xerox Corporation.

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