Customer Reviews

Survival of the Smartest: Managing Information for Rapid Action and World-Class Performance

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
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The importance of this book can be judged by any employee asking why can't we work in an organisation which is better developed on the author's 5 Organisational IQ factors:

1 EXTERNAL INFORMATION AWARENESS, ie each part of our organisation captures external information (customers, technology opportunities, competitors' actions) quickly and accurately

2 EFFECTIVE DECISION ARCHITECTURE, ie in our organisation decisions are made at the right level (by the people with the best information and perspective). As a result decisions : are made quickly, have high quality, instill ownership and accountability

3 INTERNAL KNOWLEDGE DISSEMINATION, ie each part of our organisation knows what it needs to know when it needs to know it. Effective information flows 4-dimensionally: Horizontal, cross functional Top-down, org-wide goals and priorities Bottom-up, operational challenges and opportunities Learning, review over time of all of above

4 ORGANISATIONAL FOCUS, ie organisation systematically fights overload and complexity by: Limiting scope of the business; focusing on core competences; simplifying processes

5 CREATING AN INFORMATION AGE BUSINESS NETWORK, ie Organisation maximises the value of eternal partnerships by applying the above 4 High IQ factors to the entire business network

Would love to share experiences with anyone working or reading up on how to improve organisations IQ factors

chris macrae, chief infomediary, brandknowledge.com e-mail wcbn007@easynet.co.uk

Survival of the Smartest is one of those management books that made its way through the academic world (or so-called the Ivory Tower) into the real-world. In contrary to what is expected, it does a very good job in connecting these two seemingly unrelated fields.

The novel concept, "Organizational IQ", was developed theoretically by Prof. Haim Mendelson and published in some leading academic journals such as Management Science and Information Systems Research. This book summarizes the results of those publications in an easy-to-read way. Organizational IQ is defined as "...a quantifiable measure of how organizations assimilate information and put together their decision and information architectures." It is argued and proved empirically in the book that High-IQ organizations on average are more successful than Low-IQ organizations. A company's organizational IQ describes how well the organization performs along five dimensions:

(1) External Information Awareness

(2) Effective Decision Architecture

(3) Internal Knowledge Dissemination

(4) Organizational Focus

(5) Information Age Business Network.

Mendelson describes each of these dimensions in detail and supports its arguments through the use of case studies from Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Acer, British Petroleum (BP), and Modex (a real company with a disguised name).

Although, the main focus of the book is on the use of Information Technology applications along these dimensions, an average reader will not have any difficulty in understanding these concepts if s/he knows what an Internet or Intranet is used for.

The book can be recommended as a supporting textbook for Strategy, Marketing, or Information Systems courses, especially in the graduate level. Whether you are in academia or in business, it is one of the books you should read if you are interested in how business should be done in the Information Age. Forget about the past Industrial Age books, they are already history... Chrysler has learned it in its own way (page 100 in the book)

PS: One may think that I am too generous in rating the books I comment on. However, one should keep in mind that among the books I have read, only those that are worth reading can make it here-my way of decreasing the information overload for Amazon.com members :)

This book provides you with an excellent guideline and hand on approach to both Knowledge Management, Business Intelligence, electonic commerce and organisation.

The authors provide an excellent framework that integrate both technology and strategy.

Some of the provided tools (maps, charts, ...) are very useful and directly applicable to any organisation.

The missing star is because of the "high level" analysis that deserve a view to the details that is not always presented

Anyone dealing with Information and Technology will benefit from reading this book

In Survival of the Smartest, Haim Mendelson and Johannes Ziegler explain what I believe are the Key Success Factors of successful management in the Information Age. And best of all, they do it in a factual, no-frills way that is rich with actual examples. An organization's ability to:

1) Consistently collect the right information from the necessary internal and external sources, 2) Effectively manage that information: getting it to those who need to know quickly and easily 3) Consistently have the right people making good decisions quickly with the right information 4) Rapidly communicate those decisions to all who need to know

are the information management processes at the heart of all high tech businesses (and more and more for all businesses). The brilliance of Survival of the Smartest is in showing how these processes can be measured and quantified into an Organizational IQ; much like a human's IQ. The difference, of course, is that Organizational IQ can be dramatically improved in fairly short order - as many of the real-life examples in the book document. The concept of the Organizational IQ allows managers to quantify and therefore improve their organization's performance along these dimensions.

Survival of the Smartest is based on a unique blend of insightful thinking, original research with over 100 leading high tech companies, and hands-on experience. With the in-depth case examples and the "how-to" chapter at the end, this book is by far more practical and the concepts are more applicable than those of any other business book I've read so far along these lines. I've actually put a number of the concepts from Survival of the Smartest to the test at my company (MySoftware Company: Nasdaq: MYSW). And as any MYSW shareholder will tell you, as the 9th best performing stock on all US capital markets in 1998 - and up another 40% so far this year - the proof of the Organizational IQ pudding is sweet indeed.

Gregory W. Slayton President and CEO MySoftware Company

This really is a great book -- it tells you not only what works, but why it works and how to make it work. The book is interesting, entertaining and useful. The authors come up with a way of measuring the "IQ" of an organization; using a variety of cases and examples, they demonstrate what IQ means; and they give you a step-by-step guide for improving the IQ of your own organization.

The book starts with a lively discussion of the components of IQ. In the second part, "Getting Smarter", the authors explore in-depth three case-studies of companies that tried to improve their IQ. And in the third part, "Your Turn", they detail a blow-by-blow account of their own work with one company.

You should really start reading this book from the end: the authors' description of their experience in turning around a company is both engaging and compelling. You should then flip back to the first part, to understand in more depth what IQ is all about. If you are in high-tech, you will surely identify with what these authors have to say. If you are not, you will soon be there!

I most enjoyed the story of "Modex", recounted in one of the chapters. Second in line was the story of British Petroleum, which showed how IQ works in companies that are not in high-tech. But the entire book was refreshing and entertaining, free of heavy jargon and babblespeak: just straight talk and to the point. The authors' Organizational IQ" is measurable, it's actionable, and it's fun to read about.

This book is special in that it adds empirical support for the authors' business hypothesis. However, their ideas themselves are not revolutionary. Rather they organized and framed a lot of the ideas that today's business leaders already know and practice.

I suppose that the book is in the tradition of academic research paper rather than overblown business hyperbole. As with any academic oriented publications, they make less than interesting reading, but valuable nevertheless.

Survival of the Smartest is reviewed - very positively - in this month's Fast Company. And having now read it I see why: clear, insightful, and packed with great examples for high tech managers working to improve the performance of thier organizations.

Well written and absolutely practical. This book is dead on, and will be appreciated by every high-tech manager/executive who struggles to exploit company knowledge in a timely manner. I highly recommend this book to any employee who cares about outsmarting the competition in the 21st century.

If you are managing a business, and are only going to read one book this year, read Survival of the Smartest. This book will teach you a step by step methodology of increasing your companies' Organizational IQ. There is probably no better roadmap to effective decision making in the information age than this book.

The principles clearly explained within its covers apply to small companies and large companies in all industries. This is a truly seminal book whose truths will show their value as we transition into the next century. Those who follow its principals will survive, the rest will become roadkill.

Mendelson and Ziegler combine solid research with interesting real-world company information to provide an insightful discussion of what it will take for tomorrow's companies to be successful. In brief, companies need to take a hard look at how effective they are at monitoring their business environment for new threats and opportunities, sharing knowledge across different parts of their company, strategic and operational decision-making, and focusing on key core competencies. The company's performance along these dimensions, or lack thereof, will provide clear directions for change and improvement.

The performance of the company along the above dimensions determines its Organizational IQ, which Mendelson and Ziegler's research shows is a strong indicator of financial performance. I find this Organization IQ concept very useful and practical, especially since the book provides guidelines for diagnosing IQ deficiencies and setting directions for improvement. The wealth of real company examples and case studies make the concepts in the book concrete and actionable.

I highly recommend the book to all senior managers, and anybody else interested in understanding what it will take to meet and successfully overcome the challenges of the information age.