"Wellsprings of Knowledge" focuses on the knowledge-creating activities and behaviors that managers guide, control, and inspire: developing problem-solving skills; experimenting to build for the future; integrating information across internal project and functional boundaries; and importing expertise from outside the firm. Since not all knowledge creates competitive advantage, the author helps managers understand what constitutes a core capability for their firm, and which non-strategic capabilities can be jettisoned or outsourced.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Booklist
Leonard-Barton, a professor of business administration at Harvard Business School, asks why some companies are better than others at successfully developing new products. To answer that question, she interviewed managers in various manufacturing industries who have been successful--and others who have not. The result is an understanding of the process of how better to manage a firm's "knowledge assets." Important is her discovery that a company's core competency can become a "core rigidity." Doing one thing well to the exclusion of anything else stifles creativity. Or, when the competitive environment changes, companies that continue only with what has worked in the past are often put at a disadvantage. She also examines four activities she found to be involved in the innovation process: integrated problem solving, implementation of new methodologies, experimentation, and the importing of know-how. Wellsprings is designed in part for use by academics in training managers, but its practical insights will be helpful to practitioners as well. David Rouse
--This text refers to an alternate
Hardcover
edition.
Review
"An original and elegant thesis....Provides an actionable framework for competing in a world where value resides in ideas." --IndustryWeek
"A valuable addition to the literature for practicing managers concerned with innovation." --Sloan Management Review
"The analysis and observations are both first rate." --Production Magazine -- Book Reviews
"WELLSPRINGS OF KNOWLEDGE breathes fresh life into the world of corporate creativity...Wellsprings is a refreshing break from hyperbole. Accessible, well-written and realistic, the book provides the foundations for understanding and managing the many sources of organizational genius." -- USA Today, May 18, 1998
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Well written book on knowledge creation,
By
This review is from: Wellsprings of Knowledge: Building and Sustaining the Sources of Innovation (Hardcover)
Professor Barton has written an extremely readable book on a very imporotant topic, knowledge creation. Now a days, knowledge has become a buzz word in alomost every sphere of economic activities. But what does it mean? What does it take to create knowldege? This book addresses such questions. Barton has done important research on the subject and has produced the book with some new concepts that are extremely important in management. Her idea of "core rigidity" is indeed something every senior executive should think about.
6 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A very worthwhile read.,
By marsha.wirtel@parexel.com (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Wellsprings of Knowledge: Building and Sustaining the Sources of Innovation (Hardcover)
This book would serve both seasoned knowledge practioners and those new to the field equally well. The writing is clear and crisp, and the content is well organized. I highly recommend this book for anyone charged with implementing knowledge strategies or at all interested in the topic.
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Inside This Book
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First Sentence:
Despite the Greek myth about goddess of wisdom Athena,who burst fullgrown from Zeus's forehead, knowledge does not appear all at once. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
jumping ring circulator, transferring technological capabilities, core technological capabilities, empathic design, signature skills, importing knowledge, strategic improvisation, core technological capability, creative abrasion, transferring capabilities, core rigidities, preferred cognitive styles, new technical systems, technology fusion, new technical processes, market experimentation, managerial systems, core capabilities, core rigidity, product development capabilities, shared problem solving, disk drive industry, project audits Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
United States, Digital Equipment, Fuji Xerox, Chaparral Steel, Dorothy Leonard-Barton, Harvard Business School, Emerson Electric, Xerox Shanghai, Nissan Design International, General Motors, Gordon Forward, New York, Vertex Pharmaceuticals, World War, Ceramics Process Systems Corporation, Mon Valley, Apple Computer, General Electric, Hua Fei, Matsushita Kotobuki Electronics, Plus Development Corporation, Polymer Solutions, Project Whirlwind, David Liddle, Ford Motor Company New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Despite the Greek myth about goddess of wisdom Athena,who burst fullgrown from Zeus's forehead, knowledge does not appear all at once. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
jumping ring circulator, transferring technological capabilities, core technological capabilities, empathic design, signature skills, importing knowledge, strategic improvisation, core technological capability, creative abrasion, transferring capabilities, core rigidities, preferred cognitive styles, new technical systems, technology fusion, new technical processes, market experimentation, managerial systems, core capabilities, core rigidity, product development capabilities, shared problem solving, disk drive industry, project audits Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
United States, Digital Equipment, Fuji Xerox, Chaparral Steel, Dorothy Leonard-Barton, Harvard Business School, Emerson Electric, Xerox Shanghai, Nissan Design International, General Motors, Gordon Forward, New York, Vertex Pharmaceuticals, World War, Ceramics Process Systems Corporation, Mon Valley, Apple Computer, General Electric, Hua Fei, Matsushita Kotobuki Electronics, Plus Development Corporation, Polymer Solutions, Project Whirlwind, David Liddle, Ford Motor Company New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 83
books:
See all 83 books this book cites
100
books
cite this book:
See all 100 books citing this book
- Strategic Management: Analysis and Action by Kenneth J. Hatten in Back Matter (1), Back Matter (2), and Back Matter (3)
- Research in Organizational Behavior, Volume 26: An Annual Series of Analytical Essays and Critical Reviews by Barry Staw in Back Matter (1), Back Matter (2), and Back Matter (3)
- Research in Organizational Behavior: An Annual Series of Analytical Essays & Critical Reviews by Barry M. Staw in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- Mobilizing Invisible Assets by Hiroyuki Itami on page 183, and Back Matter
- Diffusion of Innovations, 5th Edition by Everett M. Rogers in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
See all 83 books this book cites
- Knowledge Organizations: What Every Manager Should Know by Jay Liebowitz on 7 pages
- The Knowledge Evolution: Expanding Organizational Intelligence by Verna Allee on 6 pages
- When Sparks Fly: Igniting Creativity in Groups by Dorothy Leonard on 6 pages
- Radical Innovation: How Mature Companies Can Outsmart Upstarts by Richard Leifer on 6 pages
- Knowledge, Groupware and the Internet (Knowledge Reader) by David Smith on page 256, page 288, and page 292
See all 100 books citing this book
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