Managing the knowledge-based organization: five principles every manager can use

Abstract

The post-industrial enterprise is knowledge-based organization whose wealth creation is based on innovation, creativity, discovery and inventiveness. What principles should guide managers in their efforts to make such firms successful in the global market-place? The author offers five: (1) conceptualize the business; (2) create high-value know-how; (3) organize around information; (4) productively mange knowledge workers; (5) transform work using information technology (IT). The author says that these principles are replacing those of the industrial age, when command and control management was demed necessary to implement the wealth-creating formula of efficiently allocating resources (labor, capital, materials and energy). While acknowledging that IT is an important tool, the author stresses that intellectual capital is the fundamental key to success of the modern firm.