Continuity Management (Hardcover)

~ (Author), Jeremiah Boenisch (Author), David Harden (Author) "Each generation of business leaders has had to deal with a characteristic threat to profitability and, sometimes, survival that came to define their era..." (more)
Key Phrases: Information Age, Dream Team, Industrial Age (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

"How can I keep knowledge from walking out the door when employees leave?" This pressing question is insightfully answered in this landmark book. Operational knowledge has never been more critical to organizational success. Knowledge loss from downsizing, imminent baby-boomer retirements, and high job turnover have created a knowledge continuity crisis that poses an unprecedented threat to organizational productivity and profits. Based on extensive research, Continuity Management solves this crucial problem of knowledge loss for managers at any organizational level by describing an effective strategy for preserving knowledge continuity between employee generations. Revolutionary in its effect, but evolutionary in its practice, continuity management is fueling a new knowledge revolution. This book is about that revolution-and how to lead it."

ADVANCE PRAISE FOR CONTINUITY MANAGEMENT

"The book you're holding can help you reverse the tide of 'corporate forgetting.' It explains how to manage the entire cycle of identifying, transferring, and harnessing your company's operational knowledge. And that's key because knowledge continuity is quickly becoming the new competitive battlefield. Tip the balance in your favor by reading this thoughtful book." —Mike Ruettgers, Executive Chairman, EMC Corporation

"This is the first book to examine in detail the loss of knowledge caused by downsizing and turnover and the first to offer a viable solution. This break-through method for maintaining knowledge continuity between employee generations will change the corporate landscape for years to come." —Murray Martin, Group President, Global Mail, Pitney Bowes Inc.

"Continuity management is the missing link in knowledge management that will mean significant increases in productivity and knowledge creation-cutting-edge thinking regarding knowledge as a corporate asset." —Newton F. Crenshaw, Vice President, Eli Lilly and Company, E.Lilly Division

"The concepts presented in Continuity Management, provide essential guidance for how soldiers can leverage the Army's knowledge, so we can adapt to each new fight and win our nation's wars." —Lieutenant General Peter Cuviello, Chief Information Officer, U.S. Army

"This is a topic that is at the top of the list for many organizations and Beazley, Boenisch, and Harden have provided a compelling way to address it in Continuity Management. They 'get it' that the knowledge that employees have is not just individual understanding, but is embedded within a community. Continuity Management is an insightful blend of individual and community responsibility for organizational knowledge." —Nancy M. Dixon, Organizational Knowledge Consultant and author of Common Knowledge

From the Inside Flap

"How can I keep knowledge from walking out the door when employees leave?"

This recurring management question, perhaps the most pressing of the Information Age, is insightfully answered in this groundbreaking book. Acute knowledge loss from downsizing and imminent baby-boomer retirements has exacerbated chronic knowledge loss from high job turnover; together, these factors pose an unprecedented threat to organizational productivity, profits, even survival. The loss of knowledge that accompanies an employees transfer, resignation, termination, or retirement is the single most pervasive and costly source of knowledge mismanagement in corporate America today.

But it doesnt have to be. Continuity Management describes a breakthrough process that transfers operational knowledge from departing employees to their successors. Knowledge continuity initiatives at Pfizer, Deloitte Consulting, EMC Corporation, the U.S. Army, and hundreds of other organizations are already under way. But such initiatives are just the beginning. They herald the sweeping change that continuity management will bring, revolutionizing how leaders manage and companies compete. Continuity management implementation generates decisive competitive advantages: faster ramp-up of new employees, improved customer satisfaction, greater innovation, a sustained commitment to learning, and increased productivity.

Until now, knowledge continuity has been the missing link in the new paradigm that recognizes the organization as a network of thoughts rather than a hierarchy of positions–and knowledge as the force that binds, directs, and vitalizes it. Revolutionary in its effect, but evolutionary in its practice, continuity management is central to the tidal wave that is reshaping organizational knowledge flow and creation in the new century and transforming the way we think about knowledge.

Based on extensive research, this book offers a solution to knowledge loss that managers at any organizational level can use. Continuity management is fueling a new knowledge revolution. This book is about that revolution–and how to lead it.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 269 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1st edition (August 15, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471219061
• ISBN-13: 978-0471219064
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,004,073 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What The New Economy Has Missed., November 24, 2002

By	Riley Wells (Silicon Forest, Oregon USA) - See all my reviews

In the company I work for, millions of dollars are spent to train people and inculcate them in the corporate culture. The conditions and changes in the world economy ensure high employee turnover will be a normal paradigm. Often the people that we lose are the brightest and most knowledgeable. When they go, the information they used to get things done and make things work goes with them.
Boenisch, Harden and Beazley have presented a look at the magnitude of this problem plus a well thought out plan to resolve it. It won't be easy and just reading the book won't make it happen. It will require resources and corporate drive to implement. Knowledge is potentially power and money. The efforts expended to conserve it will be felt in a new competitive edge and in the bottom line.
The book should be required reading for anyone that manages people or resources. The ideas and methods can be successfully implemented corporate wide or in any first level management department. Highly recommended and a milestone book.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good on fixing the symptoms, August 6, 2003

By	Bill Godfrey (Mt Stuart, TAS Australia) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

If you have not built an organization that people hate to leave, have not established working arrangements that assure that knowledge is transferred freely and continually within the organization and have not instituted more formal processes for capturing the knowledge that flows within the organization, then you need to read this book. It offers a systematic approach to identifying, capturing and preserving knowledge that is critical to the continuing effectiveness of the organization, providing a partial and process solution to an essentially cultural problem. But you need to recognize that the approach addresses symptoms (loss of knowledge) rather than root causes (inappropriate structure, work practices and employment policies).

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Keeping Corporate Knowledge in the Corporation, July 27, 2003

By	Robert S. Lee (Tampa, FL United States) - See all my reviews

Maintaining corporate knowledge is one of the most critical tasks that I must confront as a manager. Whether it is by employees leaving for other opportunities, retiring, or downsizing; all to often much of a company's experience walks out the door with the employee. "Continuity Management" spends time clearly defining the problem and its impact. This time is well spent as the problem of corporate knowledge loss is more intricate than it may seem and the impact is very wide reaching. However, far from leaving the reader pondering the problem, Beazley, Boenisch, and Harden map out a system to stop the knowledge leak. Its not a quick fix, but a corporate-wide concentrated effort that, once implemented, becomes part of a company's culture.

"Continuity Management" ensures continued customer satisfaction during times of high employee turnover.