From the Inside Flap
The traditional means by which companies seek a competitive advantage over their rivals have lost their effectiveness. Factors such as raw materials and inventory, overhead, customer consciousness, and profit margin have been so thoroughly standardized and exploited that business can no longer reduce costs in these areas to any significant degree. The technology revolution of the 1990s and the post-bubble information explosion, however, have created one critically important function that remains wildly unregulated and completely up-for-grabs-knowledge management. James Stapleton draws upon twenty years of helping turn average companies into extraordinary success stories that reveal how to capitalize on the last true competitive advantage in the Executive's Guide to Knowledge Management.
Stapleton explains that while the most significant challenge of the last century was acquiring information, the chief problem of the twenty-first century is figuring out what to do with it. This task can be distilled into two goals:
* Defining and eliminating the subjective factors in the information-gathering process that can hinder knowledge management
* Ensuring that all employees have access to information and the operational latitude to act on it in a manner that is meaningful to the company
Stapleton believes these goals can be achieved by forming an organizational "infomentality" for organizing the array of data, opinion, and information inputs into usable, applicable knowledge. With all personnel understanding what is important and what to do with what is important, mistakes are eliminated and knowledge is employed to its maximum advantage. Subsequent chapters describe processes for building knowledge, gathering intelligence, compiling competitor information, improving customer relations, and maximizing referral source information. The author also puts forth a ten-step system for turning information into knowledge that focuses on finding information, analyzing it, acting on it, and maintaining it.
With the explosion of information now available, corporations must be able to transform a wide variety of data and opinions into applicable business knowledge in order to remain successful. James Stapleton gives executives the tools they need to capitalize on the last competitive advantage.
From the Back Cover
Gather. Evaluate. Analyze. Capitalize.
"If I had to recommend just one practical manual on how to begin to conquer the topic of knowledge management, The Last Competitive Advantage would be that book, without question. This book succinctly demonstrates how to integrate opinions, data, information, and research into usable, applicable, impactful business knowledge to provide solid foundations for the sustainable differentiation which yields that necessary edge."
-Joseph Edozien, Chief Executive Officer, Intellivence Corporation
"It's about time somebody wrote a book that explains in practical terms just how information can be turned into knowledge in a way that makes money. Stapleton's ten steps for doing so are so lucid and compelling that he should have called them 'commandments.' Of course, people have a choice whether to follow them or not. Those who do will be successful. Those who don't will end up reading about those who did."
-Robert G. Eccles, President, Advisory Capital Partners
coauthor, Building Public Trust: The Future of Corporate Reporting
"Jim Stapleton captures the essence of competing in today's fast-moving economy where information is abundant. Jim's pragmatic process gives today's leaders an easy-to-use method of turning readily available information into relevant, pragmatic decisions! If mastered, this truly is a competitive advantage that will stand the test of time."
-Eric Walczykowski, Managing Director, Nucleus Partners
"Stapleton's guidance on how to manage knowledge is both insightful and thought-provoking. Many companies make the mistake of sinking millions of dollars into information management tools, but fail in the critical step of transforming information into knowledge. Stapleton's step-by-step approach to knowledge management is a business mandate for any organization that plans to survive in the highly competitive twenty-first century."
-Jim Burns, General Manager, Hewlett-Packard
