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In this penetrating study of how knowledge
based services and technology are revolutionizing the economy
and every corporate strategy, James Brian Quinn argues that
the successful companies of the 90s -- whether in manufacturing
or services -- will derive their competitive edge not from
ephemerally superior products but from a deep understanding
of a few highly developed knowledge and service based "core
competencies." Rarely will owning the largest raw materials
resource, manufacturing plants, equipment bases, or integrated
facilities provide a maintainable competitive edge for major
companies. Such physical properties are too easily cloned
or bypassed.
From now on, Quinn documents, intelligent
enterprises will derive sustainable advantage from knowledge
and service based activities that leverage intellectual
assets. They will increase value through technological sophistication,
better knowledge bases, more creative customer responsiveness,
and the unsurpassed management of human and intellectual
capital that competitors cannot reproduce. Quinn analyzes
the technological and economic forces that make such strategies
essential. He shows in detail how to create and leverage
knowledge and service based core competencies for maximum
focus and effectiveness. Managers, Quinn asserts, must define
each value-creating activity as a knowledge based service
and determine whether or not they can perform that service
-- be it research, design, inventory control, accounting,
distribution, or advertising -- better than anyone else
in the world.
Using examples from companies such as Merck,
Honda, Apple, Boeing, and Wal-Mart, Quinn describes how
forward-looking companies can best perform needed analyses
and implement strategies around selected core competencies.
By eliminating or "outsourcing" less important
functions to superior outside vendors, firms become more
responsive, decentralized, and lean. They become the "intelligent
enterprises" of the 1990s, leveraging human and capital
resources more than other firms. They may also take on radically
new organizational forms, becoming "starburst,"
"inverted," "infinitely flat," or "spiders'
web" configurations. By designing and benchmarking
their knowledge and service based activities to be "best
in world," managers can obliterate overhead costs,
smash bureaucracies, motivate personnel, and create greater
value for customers and shareholders alike.
James Brian Quinn is the William and
Josephine Buchanan Professor of Management at the Amos Tuck
School at Dartmouth College and a three-time McKinsey Award
winner for the best Harvard Business Review article.
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