Customer Reviews

Smart Business: How Knowledge Communities Can Revolutionize Your Company

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In today's hyper-linked, blurred world, it's not surprising that the KM field is overflowing with books and papers, each touting the "best" solution. So why should you read this book?

What Jim Botkin realizes and communicates in this excellent book is that there is no single "best" KM solution. Rather, Smart Business clearly tells the story that only a holistic approach can address the real KM issues companies face.

Instead of advocating a specific KM technology or process,he provides numerous examples of how real companies are dealing with the significant cultural, as well as the technological, issues around KM. Together, these examples paint an impressionistic picture of what it takes to be at the forefront of successful KM.

What these companies have found out, and what Jim reports back, is that KM is more about constructing a community rather than installing a piece of software or hardware. And building communities is not something that can easily be reduced to a series of steps or processes. Communities arise from shared experiences. And if telling stories is one of the best ways to share an experience, then by the time the reader has finished, they will have experienced a bit of what it's like to be inside a KM leader.

What's exciting about Smart Business is that the stories are not filtered through Jim. Instead the reader hears them "first hand" directly from the company. You read about how Xerox made the transition from the document company to a knowledge company from Priscilla Douglas of Xerox's Public Sector area. Helena Light Hadley, Director of Marriott's New Business Ventures, tells you how they use KM to assure high levels of customer service in an industry with traditionally high turn-over rates.

So if you're looking to go beyond technology and into the fundamental cultural issues in KM, Jim Botkin's Smart Business is a great story to hear!

Dr. Jim has done it again. The author of the best selling, Monster Under the Bed, has given us the most concise and authoritative work yet on knowlege: its management; communities; and the new knowledge business.

The book breaks new ground and also summarizes where we are in the whirlwind of knowledge as it rips through the entire global economy. It incorporates a number of insightful case studies from real companies around the world on how they are coping with this new phenomena.

The real value to readers, initiated and novice, is how organizations, through knowledge communities, can transform themselves, even in legacy companies. These are powerful ideas, stories and concepts that together create a whole new way of doing business-- SMART BUSINESS.

I loved the analogy to bees and the clever artwork. Nature itself can teach us many lessons if only we had the patience to learn. You can learn a great deal from this book. "Dell or be Delled", as the saying now goes. This book is a manifesto for the emerging fast company. Read it and move into the future. Disregard it at your own peril!

This is the fourth book of Botkin's that I have read and it is by far, the best. He has written a superb book for leaders yearning to understand how to leverage the brainpower of their work force. Dr. Botkin lays out a strong case for less bureaucracy and more shared learning. I read Smart Business in two days and found myself consistently reaching for the highlighter. He uses powerful examples, both from the Fortune 500 companies he has worked with and the natural environment of the honeybees that almost took his life. Smart Business gives a historical perspective of how we arrived at the knowledge age. It is packed with examples of how knowledge communities bring tangible benefits to organizations. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Leaders who desire to catch a glimpse of the future should read Smart Business.

Botkin sees us moving from the information economy of number crunching to the knowledge economy of connecting. Smart businesses, by definition, will over-invest in "connecting power" and will take full advantage of Metcalf's Law (the power of a computer is proportional to the square of the number of connections it makes). The author explores building knowledge communities, knowledge businesses, and knowledge management systems. Key topics are business, organization, management, culture, learning and leadership.

This is a fascinating assessment of today's and tomorrow's economy and businesses, putting emphasis on future trends. It will make a sure-fire connection with each and everyone fascinated with, and oriented to, the future. Reviewed by Yvette Borcia, Managing Partner, Stern & Associates, co-author of Stern's Sourcefinder: The Master Directory to HR and Business Management Information & Resources, Stern's CyberSpace SourceFinder, and Stern's Compensation and Benefits SourceFinder.

If you are "doing" knowledge management and it's not working, read Jim Botkin's book. If you want to build a knowledge management system, read the book. If your CEO doesn't "get" knowledge management, have him or her read this book. It is a very cogent presentation of the business case for knowledge management, and for those who want to learn, a great KM primer. AND there's a new and valuable framework for success, which is the knowledge community. Without it or them, you're wasting your time. It is an intelligent and fun book, loaded with great examples and personal stories.

How many cliches can a consultant craft into a single disjointed book? Too many. The examples are tired; the insights are obvious, and the conclusions familiar. Save your time and money.

At The KaosPilot University we do not believe in lists with required reading since this would deprive the students of the opportunity to take responsibility for their own learning - learning how to learn - but SMART BUSINESS by Dr. Jim Botkin is the exception which confirms that rule. The new dividing line is between the ones who know and the ones who do not know how to capture, share and leverage knowledge.

Smart Business is the pragmatic new economy manifesto we have been waiting for and a 'must-read' for anyone who want to keep making a difference when the rules of business is changing.

Thanx! -- Erik Wingren, Aggressive Learner