Survival of the smartest : managing information for rapid action and world-class performance / Haim Mendelson, Johannes Ziegler.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Mendelson, Haim.

Contributor:

Ziegler, Johannes, 1965-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

High technology industries--Management.

High technology industries.

Organizational effectiveness.

Corporate culture.

Management information systems.

Physical Description:

xiii, 255 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

New York : J. Wiley, [1999]

Summary:

Drawing on the innovative concept of Organizational IQ and a study of companies in seventeen countries, Survival of the Smartest charts a course for managers to follow into the twenty-first century.

At the heart of the book is the authors' tool for assessing an organization's future health, which they call Organizational IQ. It measures a company's ability to quickly process information and make effective decisions. As industry clock speeds accelerate everywhere, a high IQ has become a prerequisite for survival. Low IQ companies that the authors studied, on the other hand, have already vanished.

Case studies from Hewlett-Packard, British Petroleum, Sun Microsystems, and Chrysler, among others, illustrate how companies can improve their Organizational IQs. How did Hewlett-Packard become the dominant player in printing? How did British Petroleum transform itself from a stodgy behemoth into the most agile and competitive player in the oil industry? How did Chrysler rise from the brink of bankruptcy to become the auto industry's prized asset?

In these companies, technology by itself played only a secondary role: to be successful, the entire organization had to become smarter. The authors show how key strategic decisions turned around these companies' Organizational IQs--and with it, their fortunes. A detailed company case study takes you in slow motion through the different steps you can take to improve the IQ of your own organization.

Survival of the Smartest offers a rare blend of a coherent framework, in-depth company case studies, a sound research base, and a detailed, step-by-step implementation example. Based on a landmark study of 164 organizations worldwide, conducted as part of a partnership between Stanford University, McKinsey & Company, and the University of Augsburg, Organizational IQ is proving to be the acid test for the success or failure of companies around the world.

Contents:

What This Book Is About xi

1. The Quick and the Dead 1

Part I Information Age Principles 9

2. Information Awareness 11

3. Decision Architecture 29

4. Internal Knowledge Dissemination 53

5. Organizational Focus 79

6. Information Age Business Networks 97

Part II Company Case Studies: Getting Smarter 127

7. Turbo-Charging The HP Way 129

8. Acer's Roller Coaster into the Information Age 155

9. British Petroleum: From Tanker to Speedboat 173

Part III Your Turn 193

10. Modex

An IQ Turnaround 195

11. Next Steps 221.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 237-243) and index.

ISBN:

0471295604

OCLC:

39890404