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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.
Jim Botkin, co-author of Monster
Under the Bed and author of No Limits to Learning,
is the founder and President of Interclass, the International
Learning Association. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
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