Intelligent Enterprise: A Knowledge and Service Based Paradigm for Industry (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "This book is about managing intellect and the services, service-based strategies, and service technologies that are revolutionizing competition in all industries, including manufacturing, today..." (more)
Key Phrases: mass service organizations, key service activities, core service activities, United States, Federal Express, American Express (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

William H. Davidson University of Southern California Intelligent Enterprise charts the new management thinking reshaping today's economy. -- Review

Product Description

In this penetrating study of how knowledge-based services and technology are revolutionizing the economy and every corporate strategy, James Brian Quinn argues that the successful companies of the 90's -- whether in manufacturing or services -- will derive their competitive edge not from ephemerally superior products but from a deep understanding of a few highly developed knowledge and service based "core competencies." Rarely will owning the largest raw materials resource, manufacturing plants, equipment bases, or integrated facilities provide a maintainable competitive edge for major companies. Such physical properties are too easily cloned or bypassed.

From now on, Quinn documents, intelligent enterprises will derive sustainable advantage from knowledge and service based activities that leverage intellectual assets. They will increase value through technological sophistication, better knowledge bases, more creative customer responsiveness, and the unsurpassed management of human and intellectual capital that competitors cannot reproduce. Quinn analyzes the technological and economic forces that make such strategies essential. He shows in detail how to create and leverage knowledge and service based core competencies for maximum focus and effectiveness. Managers, Quinn asserts, must define each value-creating activity as a knowledge based service and determine whether or not they can perform that service -- be it research, design, inventory control, accounting, distribution, or advertising -- better than anyone else in the world.

Using examples from companies such as Merck, Honda, Apple, Boeing, and Wal-Mart, Quinn describes how forward-looking companies can best perform needed analyses and implement strategies around selected core competencies. By eliminating or "outsourcing" less important functions to superior outside vendors, firms become more responsive, decentralized, and lean. They become the "intelligent enterprises" of the 1990s, leveraging human and capital resources much more than other firms. They may also take on radically new organizational forms, become "starburst," "inverted," "infinitely flat," or "spiders' web" configurations. By designing and benchmarking their knowledge and service based activities to be "best in world," managers can obliterate overhead costs, smash bureaucracies, motivate personnel, and create greater value for customers and shareholders alike.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 473 pages
• Publisher: Free Press; 1 edition (September 14, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0029256151
• ISBN-13: 978-0029256152
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,006,711 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A brillant work which should be read by all OEM executives, July 17, 1998

By	[e-mail] "rgiuntini" (Lewisburg, PA) - See all my reviews

Quinn's tome intellectually addresses the macro-economic trend of moving manufacturing, especially business-to-business durable goods, to a strategic enterprise model which instead of selling goods, will sell services that imbed the product that they manufacture. The intensity of Quinn's work is formidable! It has the same "feel" of a Peter Drucker work. ...which is a compliment to any author. This is not light reading....but it is worth every minute of effort

5.0 out of 5 stars Must Reading to Understand the Role of Services in Today's Economy, October 3, 2009

By	Thomas Oswald "Tom" (Bristow, VA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Quinn is one of the greats in the field of strategy, so I decided to go back and read this, one of his major works. This book is definitely worthwhile, especially is addressing many of the assumptions that many hold about services. If you still think of manufacturing as "real" jobs and services as flipping burgers, you need to read this book.

My only regret it that I did not read it when it first came out.