Product Description

Visionary in scope, Intellectual Capital is the first book that shows how to turn the untapped knowledge of an organization into its greatest competitive weapon.  Thomas A. Stewart demonstrates how knowledge--not natural resources, machinery, or financial capital--has become the most important factor in economic life.  Through practical advice, stories, and case histories, Stewart reveals how organizations and individuals can create and use the knowledge assets they need.  Dazzling in its ability to make conceptual sense of the economic revolution we are living through, this ingenious book cuts through the vague rhetoric of "paradigm shifts" to show how the Information Age economy really works.

Intellectual Capital should be read as if the futures of your company and your career depend on it.  They do.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #230578 in Books
• Published on: 1998-12-29
• Released on: 1998-12-29
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

From Library Journal
A leader in establishing KM's language and terminology, Stewart offers perhaps one of the best expressions of the concept of "intellectual capital," which he defines as "organized knowledge that can be used to produce wealth." The clarity and practical focus of his writing make this work essential reading. (LJ 4/15/97)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
"Be prepared to rethink your business, your career, your company's balance sheet, your organizational strategy and even the rules of the marketplace--breathtakingly written."
--Atlanta Business Chronicle

"If you read only one business book this year, make it Intellectual Capital."
--Paul Saffo, Director, Institute for the Future

"An enormously important book on a truly critical topic.  Insightful, pragmatic, fun to read.  Tom Stewart has hit a home run."
--Dr. Michael Hammer

"Original, refreshing--the management book of the '90s."
--Warren Bennis, Distinguished Professor of Business Administration, USC

"Intellectual Capital will be the watershed work on this important topic."
--Noel Tichy, coauthor of Control Your Destiny or Someone Else Will

Ingram
Intellectual capital is a brand-new concept for a brand-new way of doing business. It involves looking at products, processes, and people in order to profit from the "intelligence" it contains. This brave book by the foremost authority on the subject tells how, why, and what this revolution means.

Customer Reviews

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.