Best Practices in Management – Page 23 – Public Intelligence Blog

One Great Thought Beat to Death 190 Times,

February 24, 2001

Christopher Locke

There is one great thought in this book, i.e. that the Web makes it possible for everyone to participate in the “great conversation”, and that it is the summing and slicing of these conversations that will drive business in the 21st Century.

The authors are quite correct, and helpful, when they point out that in the aggregate, the combined preferences, insights, and purchasing power of all Web denizens is vastly more valuable and relevant to business decisions about production, quality, and services than any “push” marketing hype or engineering presumptions about what people might need.

Sadly, the authors' neither provide an integrated understanding of the true terrain over which the great conversation takes place, nor do they provide any substantive suggestions for how web content managers might improve our access to the knowledge and desires that are now buried within the web of babel. Their cute “tell a story” and equally cute advice to have big boxes for customer stories in the forms provided for input, simply do not cut it with me.

This book is a 5 for the one great idea, a 2 for beating the idea to death, a 3 for presentation, and a 4 overall because it was just good enough to keep me reading to the last page.

2001/02/242009/12/04

Review: The Collaborative Enterprise–Why Links Across The Corporation Often Fail And How To Make Them Work

4 Star, Best Practices in Management

Worth Mulling Over,

February 24, 2001

Andrew Campbell

This is not a book that calls for underlining and highlighting, but it definitely has value as a basis for reflecting on various aspects of collaboration, and the failure of collaboration, within enterprises.

The book is written strictly from the perspective of people and perceptions. It does not have a technical or a financial side and this was disappointing. It would have been more useful to have a book that fully integrated human, technical, and financial success stories and failure stories to present an integrated picture of collaborative work principles in a global economy using the Internet as the backbone for collaborative work.

The book is well-written, the figures are useful, and I recommend it to anyone who wants to sit quietly on an airplane and think about the authors' subtitle: why links between business units often fail, and how to make them work.

2001/02/242009/12/04

Review: Fastalliances–Power Your E-Business

3 Star, Best Practices in Management

Written In 60 Days, and Reader Suffers Pain,

February 24, 2001

Larraine Segil

One of a few books I bought in an airport bookstore rather than on amazon, my first thought is that the amazon process really does help–this book is flashy enough to get one to buy it on the fly, but probably would not survive in open competition when alternatives are easily visible in an electronic bookstore.

The author notes that the book was written in 60 days. It shows, and the reader is the one that suffers. I have no doubt that the author, an attractive person by the photo, is a wonderful speaker with many insights to offer. The book, however, is not well laid-out and one has the feeling that 100 different briefings have been sorted into chapter files and dumped into the book. What couldn't be fit into the text was turned into sidebar or text figure.

The book includes a CD-ROM I will never use, as well as a URL for a web address I will never visit. I would rather they had put the money into better editing, more white space, and a much better structure for the book.

My bottom line: the book should not be ignored, but I would recommend that the executive interested in these concepts have a strong younger manager of promise read this as one of 3-4 other similar books, and distill all of them into a ten page memo.

2001/02/112009/12/04

Review: Global Mind Change–The Promise of the 21st Century

5 Star, Best Practices in Management, Communications, Complexity & Resilience, Consciousness & Social IQ, Culture, Research, Democracy, Future, Information Society, Intelligence (Public)

Tragedy of Scientific Myopia, Portal to the Future Paradigm,

February 11, 2001

Willis Harman

This is a wonderful indictment of the Western scientific tradition, less comprehensive than Voltaire's Bastards but more readable and more focused as a result. The author shows a clear connection between existing global problems (ethnic violence, water scarcity, pollution, poverty, criminalization of society) and the earlier Western decisions to adopt scientific objectivity (with all of its inherent bias and ignorance) as well as the primacy of economic institutions such as have given rise to the consumerist society, regardless of the external diseconomies, the concentrations of ill-gotten wealth, and the cost to the earth resource commons. The author is especially strong on the need to restore sprituality, consciousness, and values to the decision-making and information-sharing architecture of the world–only in this way could community be achieved across national and ethnic and class lines, and only in this way could environmental sustainability and justice (economic, social, and cultural) be made possible. This is not a “tree hugger” book as much as it is a “master's class” for those who would be master's of the universe. It is a very fine portal into the growing body of people who wish to be cultural creatives, and easily one of the guideposts toward the next major paradigm shift, away from scientific materialism and toward a new communitas in which people really matter.

2001/02/112009/12/04

Review: Infinite Wealth–A New World of Collaboration and Abundance in the Knowledge Era

5 Star, Best Practices in Management, Force Structure (Military), Intelligence (Wealth of Networks)

Survival Manifesto for Anyone with A Brain,

February 11, 2001

Barry Carter

First off, this book made the cut above another ten or so options on the fringes (the amazon reviews helped). It was a good choice. The author captures the essence of many other books as well as real-world experience with two fundamental points that every manager and every employee–including fast-food employees and others in “drone” jobs–needs to absorb: first, that the existing bureaucratization of the economy at every level is costing so much as to place those companies in jeopardy during the forthcoming economic shake-out, and second, that the sooner every individual begins the process of inventorying their personal capabilities and creating the networks for offering their personal services and knowledge via the Internet to all comers, the sooner they will be able to share in the profits associated with their direct individual contributions to the new economy.

The Department of Defense acquisition and contracting examples are especially shocking because they show, so credibly and in detail, how we have institutionalized multi-billion dollar waste.

This is a special book. It is by a practical man who has drawn very personal and transformative lessons from the school of hard knocks, and whose recounting of those lessons have value for anyone who expects to work for a living today and in the future. This is not a “get rich quick” book as much as it is a “get rich together or get left behind” book.

2000/05/292009/12/04

Review: Unleashing the Killer App–Digital Strategies for Market Dominance

4 Star, Best Practices in Management, Information Society, Information Technology, Strategy

Twelve Step Guide To Good Business in New Economy,

May 29, 2000

Larry Downes

Twelve principles of killer app design: 1) Outsource to the customer, 2) Cannibalize your markets; 3) Treat each customer as a market segment of one; 4) Create communities of value; 5) Replace rude interfaces with learning interfaces; 6) Ensure continuity for the customer, not yourself; 7) Give away as much information as you can; 8) Structure every transaction as a joint venture; 9) Treat your assets as liabilities; 10) Destroy your value chain; 11) Manage innovation as a portfolio of options; 12) Hire the children.

2000/05/292009/12/04

Review: Business Value of Computers

5 Star, Best Practices in Management, Information Operations, Information Technology

Knowledge Capital and Calculating Shareholder Value,

May 29, 2000

Paul Strassmann

This is the definitive book on “knowledge capital” (his trademarked term) and how to calculate shareholder value in the New Economy. In general, one should buy this book to be persuaded of Paul's brilliance, and then hire him to implement the ideas as a strategic consultant. Not for the weak-minded CEO or CIO, as it impales most corporate oxes and concludes that in general, there has been either a negative return on investment, or no discernible contribution to corporate profit, from steadily increasing information technology budgets.

Category: Best Practices in Management

Review: The Cluetrain Manifesto–The End of Business as Usual

Review: The Collaborative Enterprise–Why Links Across The Corporation Often Fail And How To Make Them Work

Review: Fastalliances–Power Your E-Business

Review: Global Mind Change–The Promise of the 21st Century

Review: Infinite Wealth–A New World of Collaboration and Abundance in the Knowledge Era

Review: Unleashing the Killer App–Digital Strategies for Market Dominance

Review: Business Value of Computers