Mastering Information Management [Paperback]

Donald Marchand (Author), Thomas H Davenport (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 24, 2000

Knowledge is power -- but only if you can manage it. How do you make data and technology useful to your business? No amount of technical wizardry will enable your company to succeed unless you understand how information makes a contribution to all aspects of your business. Written by a world-class line-up of business school thinkers (from, among others, LBS, Harvard, MIT, Wharton) and business practitioners (including Accenture, IBM, Boston Consulting Group), Mastering Information Management includes a full range of cutting-edge ideas, tools and techniques to enable all managers to make sense of data and technology and to ensure the success of your organization in the future. We have the technology; the challenge now is to manage the information. Here is your single-source guide to becoming a master of information management. Featuring the brightest business minds on the biggest information management topics, including: Peter Drucker on concentrating on the 'I' in IT; Tom Davenport on process management; Soumitra Dutta on organizational redesign and innovation; John C Henderson and N Venkatraman on making the most of IT; Leslie P Willcocks and Mary C Lacity on IT outsourcing; M Lynne Markus on workers' reactions to new technology; Srikka L Jarvenpaa and Stefano Grazioli on gaining trust in cyberspace; Michael Earl on what makes a successful CIO; Eric K Clemons on identifying profitable customers; Donald Marchand on the demand chain...What's inside: "Everybody today believes that the present information revolution is unprecedented in reducing the cost of, and in the spreading of, information!and in the speed and sweep of its impact. These beliefs are simply nonsense" Peter Drucker, p 335 "Even the most rigorous economists have difficulty finding correlations between IT spending and productivity, profits, growth, revenues or any other measure of financial benefit." Thomas H Davenport, p 5 "Companies are built on people. Brains are more important than computers." Soumitra Dutta, p 320 "Realizing the value of IT is not a matter of fine-tuning the IT budget process!it is a matter of leadership" John Henderson & N Venkatraman, p 158 "The key question for senior managers is: how should we compete with information and IT to improve business performance?" Donald A Marchand, p 295 MASTERING SERIES Financial Times Mastering : World-class thinking from the frontiers of innovation. Based on the hugely popular Mastering inserts run by the FT newspaper, the Financial Times Mastering series covers every essential element of business. Each book brings readers the latest ideas and innovations in a key business area in a structured, comprehensive and highly accessible format. Featuring the brightest business minds on the biggest business topics, they are your single-source guides cutting-edge thought leadership.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

Introduction

The Financial Times Mastering series is the product of a unique collaboration between the FT and some of the world's leading international business schools. Mastering Information Management, drawn from a weekly series that appeared in the newspaper, is the sixth book to emerge from this partnership. As with its predecessors, we believe it combines some of the important basic principles of managing in this area with fresh ideas for 21st century students and practitioners.

Why Mastering Information Management? Few topics are more pressing at present – or more relevant to a company's short-term profitability and long-term survival prospects – yet executives remain confused by much of the advice they receive and disappointed by the payback on many of their investments. One reason may be companies' growing obsession with technology and their tendency to neglect the actual information which is stored, accessed, retrieved and distributed by that technology, the quality of the information, and the needs of users.

Note that the title of this book is not Mastering IT – that would imply more concentration on what goes on inside the boxes on your desk and on how networks actually function. The purpose of Mastering Information Management, as clearly explained in the opening article, is to put the "I" squarely back in IT.

There are 11 modules: Improving Company Performance; Competing with Knowledge; Managing IT in the Business; The Smarter Supply Chain; New Organizational Forms; Knowledge Management; Electronic Commerce; The Human Factor; Strategic Uses of IT; Innovation and the Learning Organization; and Guru and Practitioner Perspectives.

Readers will find analysis of, and solutions to, a wide range of problems – everything from data-mining and building trust in cyberspace to collaborative product development and the role of chief knowledge officers.

There is a strong emphasis on the human dimension, notably on how people react to technology-led change; there are articles on virtual offices and networks, and there are case studies on the information challenges in traditional manufacturing companies and internet start-ups alike.

Brief introductions to each module outline the main themes, and the summaries accompanying each article are designed to help readers quickly identify particular areas of interest. Lists of further reading should be helpful for those who want to delve deeper or look up references.

As with other FT Mastering books there are individuals to thank. Appropriately e-mail greatly facilitated the planning and construction of this series, but as this book constantly stresses technology is merely the enabler. My co-editors Tom Davenport and Donald Marchand provided enormous support throughout while others (notably Ahmet Aykac, general director of Theseus International Management Institute) also contributed valuable insights and advice.

The real heroes are the professors, other business school faculty and management experts who generously gave of their time to write the 50 or so articles in this book. They came from the following academic institutions and businesses: Andersen Consulting; Babcock Graduate School of Management, Wake Forest University; The Boston Consulting Group; Boston University School of Management; University of California, San Diego; University of California, Los Angeles; Claremont Graduate University; Cranfield School of Management; Darla Moore School of Business, University of South Carolina; Gartner Group Pacific; Harvard Business School; IBM Institute for Knowledge Management; IMD; INSEAD; Intel; London Business School; Marseille Graduate School of Business; Melbourne Business School; University of Miami, Florida; University of Missouri; MIT Center for Co-ordination Science; MIT Sloan School of Management; Nationwide Building Society; Peter F. Drucker Graduate School of Management, Claremont Graduate University; Rotterdam School of Management; Sprint Business; Templeton College, Oxford University; University of Texas at Austin; Theseus International Management Institute; Ukerna; University of Toronto; Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Finally, if you enjoy this book you will be glad to know that there are more Mastering books on the way. The next topic in the series will be Mastering Strategy.

Tim Dickson

From the Back Cover

How can your company use information more effectively?

Information management plays a key role for managers today. Increasingly they are realising that the management of information and information technology is critical to their strategy execution and must be mastered.

Integrating strategy with design and implementation, Mastering Information Management provides you with the full range of cutting-edge ideas, tools and techniques to ensure the long-term success of your organization.

With contributions from a world class line-up of business school thinkers and practitioners, Mastering Information Management is your most important information source for creating and controlling the driver of competitive advantage, to take your company forward in the Information Age.

We have the technology; the challenge now is to manage the information.

Like the rest of this best-selling series, this book is based on the Financial Times newspaper series and brings together the latest thinking from world renowned experts on every subject area pertinent to business people today.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 372 pages
• Publisher: Financial Times Prentice Hall; 1st edition (March 24, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0273643525
• ISBN-13: 978-0273643524
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 7.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,920,697 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The latest thoughts on Information Technology management, December 21, 2000

By 

Anthony Barker (Toronto) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mastering Information Management (Paperback)

I picked up this book because it seemed to be the best current book about the state of the art of Information Technology management. It contains short easy to read articles on topics ranging from Supply Chain, Knowledge Management and eCommerce written by some IT gurus including many academics, Peter Drucker and some Anderson people.

It comes with bit of a European perspective. I have read that European companies get better return on their investment in IT and perhaps this book reflects this. It lacks the hype of most of the American IT management books. My only criticism is that the book is somewhat academic, lacks depth in parts and is very light on the technology side of things. Glancing at the index for "Java" or "Open Source" one notices it is missing these key new technologies.

For what I was looking for it was great - an overall picture of the state of IT management theory. It filled in some of my knowledge gaps and made good subway reading.