Book 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.
Jordan J. Baruch former Deputy Secretary for Science
and Technology, United States Department of Commerce Quinn challenges
the certainties of management science as Heisenberg did in physical
science. Intelligent Enterprise will be required reading from
boardrooms to business schools.
James Brian Quinn is the William and Josephine Buchanan
Professor of Management at the Amos Tuck School at Dartmouth College
and a three-time McKinsey Award winner for the best Harvard
Business Review article.
