Wellsprings of Knowledge focuses on the knowledge-creating activities and behaviors that managers guide, control, and inspire: developing problem-solving skills; experimenting to build for the future; integrating information across internal project and functional boundaries; and importing expertise from outside the firm. Since not all knowledge creates competitive advantage, the author helps managers understand what constitutes a core capability for their firm, and which non-strategic capabilities can be jettisoned or outsourced.
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About the Author
Dorothy Leonard is the William J. Abernathy Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School.
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First Sentence
Despite the Greek myth about goddess of wisdom Athena,who burst fullgrown from Zeus's forehead, knowledge does not appear all at once. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
Despite the Greek myth about goddess of wisdom Athena,who burst fullgrown from Zeus's forehead, knowledge does not appear all at once. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
By AK
TOP 500 REVIEWER
Format:Hardcover
Dorothy Leonard's book was one of a wave of books on knowledge management (in a corporate context), a topic fairly popular in the 1990s. The book - expanded from a previous article the author wrote on the same topic - is perhaps most memorable for it's core capabilities / core rigidities concept. Or expressed differently, many of the things, which distinguish a company and raise it above the competition can and are also limiting the company in learning and change.
This concept marries up well with the difficulties of achieving architectural innovation - i.e. an innovation, where existing components are combined into a new, different product / defining a new product class - in a company on a repeated basis. The organizational rigidity that tends to set in after one such successful innovation tends to prevent further ones from happening later on. While one can always find examples to the contrary, it is a pretty apt descriptions of how most large corporations work and this makes the book a useful read.
This is of course not all there is to this book, there are specific chapters on shared problem solving, integrating new tools into an organization, experimenting and prototyping, dealing with the 'not invented here syndrome', learning from the market, transfering product development into developing nations and how to keep the innovative capabilities continuous.
The concepts might not be significantly more insightful than those of other authors of the time on the same topic but the book is coherent and very well written (i.e. can easily be read, and the lessons applied by all levels of management) - in that respect it will beat books such as Nonaka and Takeuchi's The Knowledge-Creating Company (Harvard Business Review Classics) hands down.
This concept marries up well with the difficulties of achieving architectural innovation - i.e. an innovation, where existing components are combined into a new, different product / defining a new product class - in a company on a repeated basis. The organizational rigidity that tends to set in after one such successful innovation tends to prevent further ones from happening later on. While one can always find examples to the contrary, it is a pretty apt descriptions of how most large corporations work and this makes the book a useful read.
This is of course not all there is to this book, there are specific chapters on shared problem solving, integrating new tools into an organization, experimenting and prototyping, dealing with the 'not invented here syndrome', learning from the market, transfering product development into developing nations and how to keep the innovative capabilities continuous.
The concepts might not be significantly more insightful than those of other authors of the time on the same topic but the book is coherent and very well written (i.e. can easily be read, and the lessons applied by all levels of management) - in that respect it will beat books such as Nonaka and Takeuchi's The Knowledge-Creating Company (Harvard Business Review Classics) hands down.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
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2 reviews
4 of 6 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Well written book on knowledge creation
9 July 2001
By Alok Chakrabarti
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover
Professor Barton has written an extremely readable book on a very imporotant topic, knowledge creation. Now a days, knowledge has become a buzz word in alomost every sphere of economic activities. But what does it mean? What does it take to create knowldege? This book addresses such questions. Barton has done important research on the subject and has produced the book with some new concepts that are extremely important in management. Her idea of "core rigidity" is indeed something every senior executive should think about.
6 of 15 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
A very worthwhile read.
27 July 1998
By marsha.wirtel@parexel.com
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover
This book would serve both seasoned knowledge practioners and those new to the field equally well. The writing is clear and crisp, and the content is well organized. I highly recommend this book for anyone charged with implementing knowledge strategies or at all interested in the topic.
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