Into the Networked Age: How IBM and Other Firms are Getting There Now

256 Pages·1999·14.805 MB·English

by  James W. Cortada, Thomas S. Hargraves, Edward Wakin, IBM Team of Consultants

Into the
Networked Age
How IBM and Other Firms
Are Getting There Now
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Into the
Networked Age
How IBM and Other Firms
Are Getting There Now
James W. Cortada
Thomas S. Hargraves
with Edward Wakin and an
IBM Team of Consultants
New york Oxford
Oxford University Press
1999
Oxford University Press
Oxford New York
Athens Auckland Bangkok Bogota Buenos Aires Calcutta
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and associated companies in
Berlin Ibadan
Copyright © 1999 by IBM Corporation
Published by Oxford University Press, Inc.
198 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016
Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permis-
sion of Oxford University Press.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available
ISBN: 0-19-512449-9
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 21
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
Contents
Foreword ix
Preface xiii
About the Authors: The IBM Team xvii
Part One: Confronting Change 1
Chapter 1. The Challenge of Change,
the Response of Transformation 3
The Unavoidable Stakes 6
Management and Transformation 8
Mapping the Way 9
Successful Transformation 13
Summary 17
Chapter 2. How the Rules of the Game Are Changing 20
An Economic Revolution 22
Identifying and Understanding Change 24
How Change Is Changing 28
The New Competition 34
What Does It All Mean? 36
Summary 38
Chapter 3. Making Customers into Partners 40
How to Put the Customer First 42
Analyzing Value to the Customer 46
The CVM Difference 53
When Is CVM Appropriate? 57
Putting CVM into Action 58
Keeping CVM Going 60
Summary 61
v
vi Contents
Part Two: Leading Through Knowledge 63
Chapter 4. Managing Knowledge:
Issues and Implications 65
What Is Knowledge? 67
Why Knowledge? Why Now? 69
What Knowledge Issues Do Firms Face? 72
Summary 80
Chapter 5. How to Manage Knowledge 82
Components of Knowledge Management 83
Principles of Knowledge Management 87
Enemies of Knowledge Management 93
What Can Management Do? 96
Summary 98
Chapter 6. The Leveraging of Knowledge 100
How to Identify Competencies 103
How to Benefit from Competencies 107
Putting Competencies to Work 112
Summary 115
Part Three: Managing by Process 117
Chapter 7. The "X" Factor in Transformation 119
The Three C's of Process 122
Questions and Issues 125
High-Level Processes 127
Additional Processes to Implement 130
Leading with Process Management 132
New Forms of Leadership 134
Summary 137
Chapter 8. Process Management in Action 139
Transformation Drivers 141
Managing for Growth 146
The Outcome 151
Summary 154
Part Four: Leveraging Technology 157
Chapter 9. Working Partners: Strategy and Technology 159
Transforming Entire Industries 161
Management Rethinking 164
Value Propositions and Attributes 168
Identifying Capabilities 171
Summary 173
Contents vii
Chapter 10. Technologies for Today and Tomorrow 176
Some Basics 179
Advances in IT 180
Computer Interfaces 181
Collaboration/Enablement 184
Advanced Processing 186
Connection/Distribution Applications 192
The Outlook 193
Summary 194
Part Five: Mastering Change 197
Chapter 11. Leading the Way 199
Creating Strategies 201
The Role of Knowledge 201
The Shift to Process 202
The Impact of Technology 203
Transformation Lessons 204
The Crucial Role of Leadership 205
Summary 212
Notes 215
Index 225
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Foreword
Managing change in small and large enterprises is an
essential competence all managers must have today.
That observation is obvious and rarely challenged any-
more. What is only just now becoming obvious, how-
ever, is the extent to which all firms have to change to remain profitable
and successful in the years to come. Looking back on all the changes
firms went through over the past decade gives us insight on what it
means to our individual enterprises when an economy is moving from
one historic era to another. We are experiencing the transition from the
Second Industrial Age to a new economic order that many are calling
the Information Age, but about which all managers are just learning.
We already know, however, that to be successful in this transition calls
for firms and government agencies to be nimble on their feet, quick to
change processes, sharp in their ability to understand customers' needs
and wants, and mentally prepared to accept new notions and to offer
original services.
We have all learned that change is hard to do, takes too long, and
is very complicated. IBM's experience is a case in point.
The general outline of IBM's journey over the past decade has only
been partially told in public. We all know that IBM's traditional mar-
kets began to change in the late 1980s, that by the early 1990s the firm
was not transforming fast enough from a traditional mainframe vendor
to one capable of selling smaller products and services. But the firm
recognized the need for changes, made them, and, as we sit poised at
ix