Harvard Business Review on Knowledge Management Discussion of Chapters 7 and 8 October 4, 2005 Elridge D'Mello Graduate Student in Computer Engineering

Comparison of Papers  Research That Reinvents the Corporation - Brown  Not just invent new products  Research should coproduce innovation  Tight integration with customers  Managing Professional Intellect – Quinn et al.  Must nurture self-motivated creativity  Discuss best practices for developing intellect

Themes  Deal with understanding the subtleties of people workers  How to squeeze the most out of the knowledge workers  Brown – Understanding and recognizing how people work  Quinn et al. - How to develop the best professional intellect

Critiques  Brown: Good foresight  “Companies like ours might sell not products but rather the expertise...” --> Service oriented industry Example “How XEROX redesigned its copiers”  Good use of statistics to show improvement  Quinn et al: Good list of 'best practices' Some of their ideas are idealistic  Inverting organizations

What are they talking about/doing now?  Brown:  “The Social Life of Information” (2000) Book about organizational learning – How can we make it happen faster, better, deeper?  In an interview, (2000) Brown discusses the importance of context in understanding information Today, we can feel overwhelmed by information. E.g. When surfing the web, the lack of context can lead a person to be feel disconnected  Brown helped develop Grokker 2.0 (~2004) An application that converts text lists of search results into a map of floating spheres and other graphical representations

What are they talking about now? (continued)  Quinn:  “Forging Environmental Markets” (2000) “To achieve a truly sustainable environment, we must recognize that environmental improvement and economic growth can and do go hand in hand.” “Environmental improvement is a market rather than a cost.”  “Revolutionizing Higher Education” (2001) Response of education to the innovation of Internet technologies Trends in economics affecting education

References  Interview with Brown, “We Participate, Therefore We Are” Authors: Joe Flower and Patrice Guillaume Source: Health Forum Journal; Jul/Aug2000, Vol. 43 Issue 4, p30  “Out-Googling Google”, an article on Grokker  Review of “The Social Life of Information”, book by Brown Author:Charlotte Webb Farr Source:Quarterly Review of Distance Education; Winter2002, Vol. 3 Issue 4, p465  “Forging Environmental Markets” Authors: James Brian Quinn and James F. Quinn Source: Issues in Science & Technology, Spring 2000, Vol. 16, Issue 3, p45  “Revolutionizing Higher Education” Author: James Brian Quinn Source: Educause Review; Jul/Aug2001, Vol. 36 Issue 4, p28

Questions?