Smart Business : How Knowledge Communities Can Revolutionize Your
Company
by James W. Botkin
Table of Contents
- Foreword: An Economy of Ideas
- By Alan Webber
- Introduction: The Wisdom of Nature
- 1. Why Knowledge Shared Is Power
- 2. The Knowledge Age - Opportunity for a New Enlightenment?
- 3. What's the Knowledge Business in Your Business?
- 4. Knowledge Communities as Entrepreneurial Ventures
- 5. Manage Knowledge so Your Chief Knowledge Officer Doesn't Have to Do It for You
- 6. Learning to Lead the Knowledge Revolution
- 7. Cultures That Question Are Cultures That Trust
- 8. Leadership Is Building Your Community's Future
- 9. "Not-For-Tangible-Business-Purposes" and Other Pitfalls
- 10. A Smart Business Engages the Knowledge Revolution and Grows from It
- Afterword: The Economics of Knowledge
- By Eric Vogt
- App. Company Contributions - How Legacy Companies Practice Smart Business
- 1. Xerox: Documents Convey Knowledge
- By Priscilla H. Douglas
- 2. Marriott: Ordinary People Doing Extraordinary Things
- By Helena Light Hadley
- 3. Satum: People, Systems, Training and Development
- By Gary High
- 4. IRL: The Manager's Core Work in the New Economy
- By Peter Henschel
- 5. Sweden Post: From Monopoly to Modernity
- By Gosta Hagglund
- 6. Creative Intellectual Capital in the Mindfacturing Era
- By Rene Villarreal
- 7. SMG: To Be a Business Innovator
- By Berth Jonsson
- 8. Los Alamos National Laboratory, and Rebecca Phillips, Motorola University:
Understanding Scientific Knowledge Communities
- By Heidi Hahn
Book Description
Knowledge is most productive when it is shared by all. This simple but profound
insight, long accepted in the academic, scientific, and medical communities, is about to
radically transform business. Our economy has become inundated with information, yet often
businesses are unable to use and exploit it. How can managers organize their workplaces to
effectively exchange, expand, and exploit knowledge?
Dr. Jim Botkin, one of the world's leading knowledge consultants, sees a tidal wave of
information swamping the old ways of doing business. The knowledge economy, he argues, is
not just for Silicon Valley startups; it touches every company, in every industry. We
ignore Dr. Botkin's experience at our peril; the new breakneck speed of change demands
that we all capture and capitalize on knowledge, or die. As he puts it, "You better
not be in the same business five or ten years from now that you are in today."
Smart Business is the first knowledge-age book to give practical advice on how
to organize and make use of knowledge -- how to turn knowledge into wisdom. Botkin argues
that we must build "knowledge communities" -- groups of people with a shared
passion to create, use, and share new knowledge for tangible business purposes. When we
do, we will experience a transformation that powers our business and inspires new models
of networked management.
Botkin draws on the experiences of dozens of companies -- and includes testimonials in
an appendix from managers at such organizations as Xerox, Marriott, Saturn, and Los Alamos
labs. He shows how AT&T formed six knowledge communities in order to radically
transform their selling strategy. How the postal service of Sweden transformed itself from
the oldest state monopoly to one of the largest successful private companies in
Scandinavia. How Motorola is using knowledge to transform its legendary Motorola
University from classroom curriculum to catalyst for change.
With examples like these, and practical advice on how every organization can benefit
from knowledge communities, Smart Business is the knowledge book for the new
millennium.
Reviews
From Booklist
, June 1, 1999
Botkin is cofounder and president of the International Corporate Learning Association
(InterClass), a "knowledge community" of Fortune 500 companies. He has been
writing about learning and knowledge for more than 20 years, most recently co-authoring The
Monster under the Bed: How Business Is Mastering the Opportunity of Knowledge and Profit
with Stanley Davis. Here Botkin shows how knowledge communities are supplanting teams as
building blocks for "organizations focused more on networks than on traditional
hierarchies." A knowledge community is a group of managers and workers "whose
mission is to create, use, and apply the new knowledge in their industry for tangible
business purposes." Botkin shows how companies within InterClass have utilized
knowledge communities, and he explains how they can be applied to enhance the products a
company makes, to organize and manage companies better, and to understand and improve
their cultures, learning, and leadership. David Rouse
Copyright© 1999, American Library Association. All rights reserved
A
reader from Denmark, July 18, 1999
A KaosPilot must-read
At The KaosPilot University we do not believe in lists with required reading since this
would deprive the students of the opportunity to take responsibility for their own
learning - learning how to learn - but SMART BUSINESS by Dr. Jim Botkin is the exception
which confirms that rule. The new dividing line is between the ones who know and the ones
who do not know how to capture, share and leverage knowledge.
Smart Business is the pragmatic new economy manifesto we have been waiting for and a
'must-read' for anyone who want to keep making a difference when the rules of business is
changing.
A
reader from Shelton, Connecticut , June 17, 1999
This books goes beyond technology in addressing KM issues!
In today's hyper-linked, blurred world, it's not surprising that the KM field is
overflowing with books and papers, each touting the "best" solution. So why
should you read this book?
What Jim Botkin realizes and communicates in this excellent book is that there is no
single "best" KM solution. Rather, Smart Business clearly tells the story that
only a holistic approach can address the real KM issues companies face.
Instead of advocating a specific KM technology or process,he provides numerous examples
of how real companies are dealing with the significant cultural, as well as the
technological, issues around KM. Together, these examples paint an impressionistic picture
of what it takes to be at the forefront of successful KM.
What these companies have found out, and what Jim reports back, is that KM is more
about constructing a community rather than installing a piece of software or hardware. And
building communities is not something that can easily be reduced to a series of steps or
processes. Communities arise from shared experiences. And if telling stories is one of the
best ways to share an experience, then by the time the reader has finished, they will have
experienced a bit of what it's like to be inside a KM leader.
What's exciting about Smart Business is that the stories are not filtered through Jim.
Instead the reader hears them "first hand" directly from the company. You read
about how Xerox made the transition from the document company to a knowledge company from
Priscilla Douglas of Xerox's Public Sector area. Helena Light Hadley, Director of
Marriott's New Business Ventures, tells you how they use KM to assure high levels of
customer service in an industry with traditionally high turn-over rates.
So if you're looking to go beyond technology and into the fundamental cultural issues
in KM, Jim Botkin's Smart Business is a great story to hear!
A
reader from Annapolis, MD , June 17, 1999
A Tour de Force on the knowledge revolution
Dr. Jim has done it again. The author of the best selling, Monster Under the Bed, has
given us the most concise and authoritative work yet on knowledge: its management;
communities; and the new knowledge business.
The book breaks new ground and also summarizes where we are in the whirlwind of
knowledge as it rips through the entire global economy. It incorporates a number of
insightful case studies from real companies around the world on how they are coping with
this new phenomena.
The real value to readers, initiated and novice, is how organizations, through
knowledge communities, can transform themselves, even in legacy companies. These are
powerful ideas, stories and concepts that together create a whole new way of doing
business-- SMART BUSINESS.
I loved the analogy to bees and the clever artwork. Nature itself can teach us many
lessons if only we had the patience to learn. You can learn a great deal from this book.
"Dell or be Delled", as the saying now goes. This book is a manifesto for the
emerging fast company. Read it and move into the future. Disregard it at your own peril!
A
reader from Boston, MA , June 17, 1999
Praise from a Knowledge Management Practitioner
If you are "doing" knowledge management and it's not working, read Jim Botkin's
book. If you want to build a knowledge management system, read the book. If your CEO
doesn't "get" knowledge management, have him or her read this book. It is a very
cogent presentation of the business case for knowledge management, and for those who want
to learn, a great KM primer. AND there's a new and valuable framework for success, which
is the knowledge community. Without it or them, you're wasting your time. It is an
intelligent and fun book, loaded with great examples and personal stories.
A
reader from Chicago, Illinois , June 9, 1999
Tedious recapitulation of the obvious
How many clichés can a consultant craft into a single disjointed book? Too many. The
examples are tired; the insights are obvious, and the conclusions familiar. Save your time
and money.
A
reader from Washington, D.C. , April 16, 1999
Informative, well written and provocative!
This is the fourth book of Botkin's that I have read and it is by far, the best. He has
written a superb book for leaders yearning to understand how to leverage the brainpower of
their work force. Dr. Botkin lays out a strong case for less bureaucracy and more shared
learning. I read Smart Business in two days and found myself consistently reaching for the
highlighter. He uses powerful examples, both from the Fortune 500 companies he has worked
with and the natural environment of the honeybees that almost took his life. Smart
Business gives a historical perspective of how we arrived at the knowledge age. It is
packed with examples of how knowledge communities bring tangible benefits to
organizations. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Leaders who desire to catch a glimpse of
the future should read Smart Business.
Editor,
Stern's Management Review online, April 8, 1999
MAKES A SURE-FIRE CONNECTION WITH ALL FUTURE-ORIENTED FOLKS!
Botkin sees us moving from the information economy of number crunching to the knowledge
economy of connecting. Smart businesses, by definition, will over-invest in
"connecting power" and will take full advantage of Metcalf's Law (the power of a
computer is proportional to the square of the number of connections it makes). The author
explores building knowledge communities, knowledge businesses, and knowledge management
systems. Key topics are business, organization, management, culture, learning and
leadership.
This is a fascinating assessment of today's and tomorrow's economy and businesses,
putting emphasis on future trends. It will make a sure-fire connection with each and
everyone fascinated with, and oriented to, the future.
