[.ca] Intellectual Capital: The new wealth of organization (ISBN 0385483813)

Stewart treats us all like children:
I started reading this book with the best intentions. However, when Stewart begins with such kindergarten level assertations, I knew as a Business student, there was no point in continuing reading this book. Stewart, a Fortune Editor, has no business training: he is a Harvard English major, and this is clearly shown in his work. If one reads his fortune articles, they are equally poorly written with bad information. I would suggest that one spend their money on better Management authors such as Jon Katzenbach or Peter Drucker, both of whom actually have a clue.

provides framework for better understanding knowledge assets:
The author defines intellectual capital, its characteristics that are different from physical property, and the implications. He provides data to show increasing relative value of knowledge over physical property. He discusses identifying and nurturing knowledge assets that support your company's core competence and competitive advantage. Three categories of intellectual capital were discussed: personnel talent, structural / environmental / process / system framework, and customer relationships. An interesting model to quantify the value of customer relationships / brand / competitive advantage has been presented. This can be useful for investors analyzing companies with substantial intangible assets. Four stars because the book has not made a difference in my life, yet ...

Understanding Blue's Clues for Success:
The tipping point is that magic moment when an idea, trend, or social behavior crosses a threshold, tips, and spreads like wildfire. Just as a single sick person can start an epidemic of the flu, so too can a small but precisely targeted push cause a fashion trend, the popularity of a new product, or a drop in the crime rate. Mr. Gladwell, in a very well written and compelling book, has changed the way we think about the root-cause of social epidemics, mob "psychology," and institutional growth. Through clear examples and studies of well known and familiar marketing "phenomenon," we come to realize that we often misdiagnose both our successes and our failures when it comes to understanding why certain social changes stick. We are given the "real analysis" of why Blue's Clues and Sesame Street are great successes while other more deliberate attempts at "hooking" our children on educational TV failed. We find out why the New York City crime rate was drastically reduced by cleaning up graffiti on the trains and arresting the squeegee men at the toll booths. More importantly, we learn how to challenge the status quo in our ideas of why products and services might take off or fail in our business and non-profit organizations. We also learn why growing an organization from 100 people to 150 people presents no difficulty, but growing that same organization from 150 to 200 is all but doomed to fail. Mr. Gladwell explains why context matters in our quest to understand the social trends around us. And we learn why telling medical students to rush makes them calloused citizens despite their normally compassionate tendencies. All of this information is important to those of us working to grow our institutions and manage our company cultures. Change management is doomed to fail without a deep understanding of the "Tipping Point" as clearly and eloquently explained in this excellent book by Malcolm Gladwell. This is a must read for anyone serious about understanding why little things can make a very, very big difference!

Jumping Off Point Into Intellectual Capital:
As an occassional reader of business literature and a new convert to the importance of knowledge management, I found Stewart's book a wonderful introduction to this important organizational management strategy. I immediately found myself thinking of ways to apply the various forms of intellectual capital (human, structural and customer) to my work in higher education. In fact, Stewart's work provided important insights that proved helpful to my doctoral dissertation on higher education/business partnerships. Admittedly, there is little here in terms of practical strategies for applying the ideas in the marketplace. However, it does encourage those who are interested in the topic to pursue more in depth and practical works on the subject of knowledge management.

Intellectual Capital : No Longer A Blurred Term:
It is my great pleasure to write a review for this important book. Over past years a lot of book investigating "the value of human resource as a competitive advantage" in organizations was published but none of them explained us what human resource and value mean in the larger context of competition, what are practical ways to use of this very competitive resource on behalf of the organization. I herald that this book gives the absolute framework we need for a new and comprehensive study on intellectual capital. According to Stewart, Intellectual Capital is consisted of three interconnected parts, namely, Human Capital, Structural Capital and Customer Capital. Human Capital means the knowledge and skill level of corporate personnel. If an organization has a personnel inventory whose knowledge and skills are vital in the long-run, the first part of the capital forms a strong base to capitalize on. The other part of Intellectual capital, Customer Capital, means that organization is producing value for its customers and accordingly custemers have a strong loyalty to the company. The last part of Intellectual capital is Structural capital which connects Human Capital and Customer Capital to each other. Organizations need structural systems to use human resource in order to meet customers' needs and wants in a more effective way which other companies can not imitate without incurring high costs and time loss. You will find a lot of living examples intended to make these abstract concepts understandable to readers who are accomodated to hear many pop-ups regarding human capital and its value. Overall, I strongly recommend with five stars.