Customer Reviews

The Innovation SuperHighway

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Over the past several years, I have been through numerous books on knowledge management and innovation management. Most have tried to provide "quick fixes" under the notion that if it worked for me, it will work for you. In reality, innovation is not a simple copy & paste from one organisation to the next.

This book stands out from the rest in numerous ways. Instead of offerring "quick fixes", it provides the environment and sets the foundation for some creative thinking on the why, what and how of innovation. Metaphorically speaking:
- It advises on where to find the seeds (ideas) of innovation
- It helps you both identify and even create the fertile ground (innovation atmosphere) where to plant your seeds of innovation (it should not come as a surprise, that while some ideas may be born in one continent, they can only lead to innovations in another).
- Most of all, the book provides you with the skills and mindset to be a passionate "innovation" gardener. The one who patiently nurtures the innovation seeds and sensures they blossom to flowers.

What I liked most about this book was the simple fact that it encouraged me to think. To think and ponder beyond the balance sheet. To think and realise how each one of us can make a difference. Within every chapter and the numerous case studies in the book, key questions for reflection are provided. These are moments to pause, think, and reflect. One of the first steps in mastering the art of innovation.

Amidon does not talk of innovation as a cash cow, or yet another management paradigm that comes and goes. Innovation is seen as the means through which we will transform the world into a truly sustainable knowledge/innovation society. A society that will be further nurtured and led by coming generations.

Before reading another book on knowledge or innovation management, I would recommend reading this great classic by Amidon first. Once you have read another book, I would recommend following it up with a reading of this book. You will be surprised at its capacity to stimulate your "thinking-buds".

This book wrestles with measuring the intangibles. The metrics of a knowledge driven economy.
This book was first available in 2003. In the March 4th 2006 issue of The Economist there appeared an article: Getting a Grip on Prosperity - what if intangible investment is measured properly?. The concepts in this book are now entering the mainstream.

For someone who wants to understand the forces that will drive our economies and most likely their careers for the next few decades...this book is a useful introduction...particularly chapter 11.2 and Part 5.

The Innovation SuperHighway is one of the fundamental pieces of work dealing with how to create sustainable collaborative advantage through the development AND implementation of knowledge strategies. The book defines the innovation frontier as our future assets and includes superb examples of innovation infrastructures being created in companies and countries - giving an understanding of how the attention should be on the people and not the technology per se. This since been documented in her subsequent research around knowledge innovation zones, the UNESCO reports and IBM CEO innovation surveys. In wise foresight there is also a chapter is dedicated to youth and how they are being mobilized with their vision. Finally, the vision in the concluding section documents the era of collaborative advantage - another evolving (and now accepted) principle of the Knowledge Economy. It is critical to note however that this book is NOT about knowledge management - it moves beyond these principles and provides a blueprint for discovering and leveraging intellectual capital, versus "managing" what is evident. In this manner the book enables the reader to sense not only why innovation is the utlimate manifestation of harnessing intangibles, but also how to create the dynamic conditions for profiting from an economy where sustainable succes is only possible if organizations and people innovate knowledge --existing and new-- more effectively to enhance economic growth and collaborative advantage. As we move from economic scarcity models based on land, labor, and capital to models of abundance based on an inexhaustible resource - knowledge, old rules do not apply; and the new rules are being innovated. This book provides the best starting point for executives and managers at all levels to begin this journey, and to set the stage for moving into a new innovation frontier - one based upon intangible value and intellectual wealth, for the success of their organizations, their enterprises and society.

Anyone who has read CIO Insight http://www.cioinsight.com/article2/0,1397,1777087,00.asp
And who wants to understand the how of living in a globalized economy:
The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century by Thomas L. Friedman and Oliver Wyman (available here too) , would want to read Amidon's's two books The Ken Awakening as well as this one, .

The book, The Innovation Superhighway, is not about the how why of globalization as much as it is about the forces of globalization (ease of transferring and exchanging knowledge and how as Friedman says "What I am trying to do is say that something important really is happening. The value-creation model is moving away from a vertical silo model to an increasingly collaborative horizontal model, from command and control to collaborate and connect, and that's going to change everything."
This is not recreational read. It is a book to be studied. And the concepts put to use.

Debra Amidon is a prophet of the KM revolution and uses suitably prophetic language. She is at the centre of a world-wide network of KM specialists. This book is part grand vision, part synthesis of the various strands of KM, part guide to practice, and part guide to the literature and celebration of some 'great names' in the field.

As a grand vision it risks utopianism by ignoring some realities and paradoxes that do not fit with the vision. The synthesis is useful, particularly in its insistence on a holistic view of the technology and human aspects of KM, although specialists in other disciplines may not welcome the attempt to subsume the whole of strategy and management under the KM umbrella.

Those seeking a guide to practice will find some very useful tools, perspectives and approaches, but may be frustrated by the very conceptual level at which many are pitched.

I use this title because:-

I would not trust a CEO, policy-maker or anyone with knowledge influence if he/she did not have this by her/his side, and make it live. In community, we need to know who we are being measured by these days, and how we measure them. This bible's identity can pass for that role.

My reasoning for this rating is that the book is incredibly open linking you through 100 KM gurus that Ms Amidon networks with as well as mapping how her own views on the most valuable ways forward. Her views clearly echo the humanity of Drucker - the founder of the term knowledge worker - as well as overtaking the most optimistic views of a networked society known to me through my father's futurist network at The Economist (from his first 1984 celebratory network economy bye bye to Orwell on [website] )

It is not that this delightful book replaces any other of my KM favourites including those that follow but it links them together as well as being the perfect introduction and inspiration to why knowledge age organisation will change your future so you might as well shape it too. Come join the biggest work-play of the century; dont be left out of the story.

St Onge on CoP
McElroy on new KM
Seely Brown on Social Life of Information
Baker on Achieving success through Social Capital
Edvinnson on Corporate Longitude
Older but golden young: Sveiby on New Organisational Wealth
Older but Eternal : Drucker Library

Chris Macrae, European Union sig editor for Knowledge Management & Emotional Intelligence at ...

As a Chief Financial Officer, I've been hearing alot of "hype" about valuing intangibles and intellectual capital. Not until I read Amidon's most recent book, did I understand the rationale behind this type of valuation, or a way to implement it for my company. The chapter on Knowledge Economics - in particular - has been instructive for what I can and need to do for my company.

But this book does so much more than provide insight for my own function. It has provided me with a vehicle to have THE conversation with the rest of my Management team. Now I can see that Strategic Planning alone is not enough and Innovation Strategy - something we need to learn how to do - is CRITICAL.

I encourage other readers to explore the implications of this book that are well beyond the boundries of a company or a country. Its a practical book that will lead to action! Enjoy what you find!

This book opens your eyes on many important questions and guides you through the world of people that may have the answers.
It's not a simple 10-step guide to success in your business, but a wise, well-researched analysis of the current trends in business and society. Really a must for leaders of today and tomorrow. Fascinating lecture!

A true visionary of the highest calibar, Ms. Amidon has once again blessed the world community with a working masterpiece. This book is a must read for anyone responsible for developing sustainable strategies or policies for countries, organizations or world regions.

In a world that appears to be in chaos and spiraling out of control, this work serves to bring understanding and insight necessary for the development of progressive and sustainable change. In essence, Ms. Amidon not only makes it clear that such changes warranted, but she delivers the hope that they are possible.

The requisite courage and leadership to initiate and execute such change, must be brought to the table by the bold and earnest practicioner. There is after all, only so much a book can do. However, and in that regard, Ms. Amidon has once again truly demonstrated her courage and leadership by producing this original and thought provoking work.

From the opening Forward, written collaboratively by three experts, to the last chapter, Debra Amidon writes with honor for the collective intelligence. She paints a global landscape of thoughtful collaboration as she weaves her own thinking with numerous references and acknowledgements of others in the field.

Debra Amidon speaks with the rarefied air of a highly credentialed individual converging their professional/business intellect with a heartfelt vision for humanity. Debra writes in Chapter 17, "The knowledge cconomy, as opposed to a digital or technology economy, affords us a human and humane agenda within which the potential of every person is valued."

In covering so wide a swath of global collaborative and knowledge management activites, this book provides a vast audience of practioners, activists, and students with numerous learning and networking possibilities.

While richly covering the state-of-the-art in this field, the book serves to energize and stimulate new thinking and future developments. Clearly this is a reflection of the collaborative agenda embodied in the personality and integrity of the writer. While I was becoming more learned on the subject, my own possibilities for engagement were expanded.