Rating: 
Summary: Great distilled thinking, well reasoned with many examples.
Review: Knowledge Focus Managers in some of the fastest growing and most proftable businesses focus on knowledge, see theie business from a knowledge perspective, and act as if there intangible assets are real. (p x) So many companies have intangibles exceeding the value of their tangible assets, eg Telstra 90% intangible. This can be tracked by the share price v book value. But what of the businesses that do not have a share price eg private businesses, public sector organisations etc. Intangible Assets Sveiby identifies three major classes of intangible assets:Employee competence, Internal structures, whereby competence may be transferred from employee to employee, and External structure, including goodwill, relationships with customers. Sveiby considers the management of the intangible assets critical in managing the business, where the intangible assets are significant. He suggests using indicators of movement over time, rather than absolute values of the intangibles. Suggested indicators are classified into three types:I ndicators of growth/renewal;Indicators of efficiency;Indicators of stability. Measurement of employee performance is split between the professionals (eg doctors, engineers, accountants), and the support staff. There is a continual blurring of this distinction. The real difference is the professionals are revenue generators, and the support staff are not. But the support staff do contribute significantly to the creation of value in the business through their impact on internal and external structures. Suggested indicators are provided for each type of intangible and for each indicator. To many to list. Read it and see. A few to tease you with: %big customers,age structure, devoted customer ratio, frequency of repeat orders) The arguments Sveiby uses are based on his observations, and logic that makes his conclusions all the more powerful.
Rating:
Summary: Great distilled thinking, well reasoned with many examples.
Review: Knowledge Focus Managers in some of the fastest growing and most proftable businesses focus on knowledge, see theie business from a knowledge perspective, and act as if there intangible assets are real. (p x) So many companies have intangibles exceeding the value of their tangible assets, eg Telstra 90% intangible. This can be tracked by the share price v book value. But what of the businesses that do not have a share price eg private businesses, public sector organisations etc. Intangible Assets Sveiby identifies three major classes of intangible assets:Employee competence, Internal structures, whereby competence may be transferred from employee to employee, and External structure, including goodwill, relationships with customers. Sveiby considers the management of the intangible assets critical in managing the business, where the intangible assets are significant. He suggests using indicators of movement over time, rather than absolute values of the intangibles. Suggested indicators are classified into three types:I ndicators of growth/renewal;Indicators of efficiency;Indicators of stability. Measurement of employee performance is split between the professionals (eg doctors, engineers, accountants), and the support staff. There is a continual blurring of this distinction. The real difference is the professionals are revenue generators, and the support staff are not. But the support staff do contribute significantly to the creation of value in the business through their impact on internal and external structures. Suggested indicators are provided for each type of intangible and for each indicator. To many to list. Read it and see. A few to tease you with: %big customers,age structure, devoted customer ratio, frequency of repeat orders) The arguments Sveiby uses are based on his observations, and logic that makes his conclusions all the more powerful.
Rating:
Summary: This book presents methods to determine intangible assets
Review: My Name is Charles Cunha.Currently, I am doctoral student in an educational technology program at Pepperdine University, Culver City, CA I have written a review on this book since it relates to my areas of studies. Presently many companies are trying to determine their organizational wealth. Most companies try to measure their organizational wealth only based on visible quantitative and qualitative assets. Regardless of what method is used or what organizational effectiveness model is utilized to determine organizational wealth, the fact remains that only visible assets are used. This of course results in many organizations to question their method or approach to determine their organizational wealth. Moreover, the problem is perpetuated when organizations benchmark each other using similar methods of limited as well as restrictive quantitative and qualitative visible assets to determine their organizational wealth. Therefore, organizational management squabbles that the millions spent to determine their organizational wealth was a wasted effort because only visible assets were measured. Hence the questions remains, is there a better method to determine organizational wealth? The New Organizational Wealth written by Karl Erik Sveiby provides realistic tools and methods for organizations to determine and manage a knowledge organization. Moreover, this book presents an overview for organizations to measure their worth using intangible assets. This book clearly explains that by using intangible assets to determine organizational wealth based on employee's talents and strengths, customer support and partnership, as well as supplier's reliability and integrity make intangible assets the most value to the company. Overall, this book has several case studies that show when an organization measures intangible assets result is long-term success.
Rating: 
Summary: Knowledge as Wealth
Review: There is a thirst for understanding how to manage the "new" companies that are knowledge based rather than founded on product manufacturing. Here is a book to help with that quest. Sveiby explains that, as an example, the public was willing to pay, in 1995, an average price of $70 for Microsoft when their book value was about $7. In other words, the shareholders saw about $9 of additional value for every $1 of tangible assets on Microsoft's books. There is no entry on Microsoft's balance sheet for that $9, and it represents a major trend in our "post industrial" economy. How do we manage such an illusive asset? Sveiby steps us through (1) understanding the era of knowledge Organizations, (2) managing intangible assets, and (3) measuring intangible assets. There are practical examples of measuring systems, how to organize a company to maintain and transfer knowledge, and keys to developing professional competence. Sveiby defines, for the purpose of this book, knowledge as "a capacity to act." "One's capacity to act is created continuously by a process-of-knowing. In other words, it is contextual. Knowledge cannot be separated from its context. The notion also implies teleological purpose. I believe that the human process-of-knowing is designed by nature to help us survive in an often hostile environment." I learned about the professional's three life cycles - the super star, the statesman, and the normal professional. I learned about the classic problem of organic growth in our knowledge organizations. And I re-learned that "it takes time, experience, and mental effort to turn information into useful knowledge. And since recipients cannot know until afterward whether it was worth spending that time, information that turns out to be worthless is really worth less than nothing." For those trying to understand the new business model, this book is well worth the time and effort. It will help you move your company into the modern age.
Rating:
Summary: Knowledge as Wealth
Review: There is a thirst for understanding how to manage the "new" companies that are knowledge based rather than founded on product manufacturing. Here is a book to help with that quest. Sveiby explains that, as an example, the public was willing to pay, in 1995, an average price of $70 for Microsoft when their book value was about $7. In other words, the shareholders saw about $9 of additional value for every $1 of tangible assets on Microsoft's books. There is no entry on Microsoft's balance sheet for that $9, and it represents a major trend in our "post industrial" economy. How do we manage such an illusive asset? Sveiby steps us through (1) understanding the era of knowledge Organizations, (2) managing intangible assets, and (3) measuring intangible assets. There are practical examples of measuring systems, how to organize a company to maintain and transfer knowledge, and keys to developing professional competence. Sveiby defines, for the purpose of this book, knowledge as "a capacity to act." "One's capacity to act is created continuously by a process-of-knowing. In other words, it is contextual. Knowledge cannot be separated from its context. The notion also implies teleological purpose. I believe that the human process-of-knowing is designed by nature to help us survive in an often hostile environment." I learned about the professional's three life cycles - the super star, the statesman, and the normal professional. I learned about the classic problem of organic growth in our knowledge organizations. And I re-learned that "it takes time, experience, and mental effort to turn information into useful knowledge. And since recipients cannot know until afterward whether it was worth spending that time, information that turns out to be worthless is really worth less than nothing." For those trying to understand the new business model, this book is well worth the time and effort. It will help you move your company into the modern age.
Rating:
Summary: A Knowledge Management Classic
Review: This was probably the first book on knowledge management that really paid any attention to the bottom line, or what km can do for it. While the concepts might be abstract without a brief primer on organization development the overall message is not beyond the reach of the average reader. I will say that it may be time for an update as the author was seemingly taken with "boom" economics and used said examples to emphasise his points. What is clear is that while his examples are powerful in the context of the time frame in which they were written they can still be applied to the economic environment now faced by many organizations. Overall I would recommend this book to someone looking to familiarize themselves with some of the underpinnings of KM or in the earliest stages of the development of a km practice.
Rating:
Summary: Putting the knowledge economy on a sound business foundation
Review: To this day, Sveiby's "New Organizational Wealth" stands apart in that the book remains one of the few to make a serious attempt to place the benefits of the somewhat nebulous concept of the knowledge economy on a sound economic and business foundation. (Paul Strassman takes a similar approach, but more towards the macroeconomic level, in his articles in Knowledge Management magazine.) Readers of the "New Organizational Wealth" will likely want to visit Sveiby's web site to get access to some of the tools he has since developed to help implement systems to measure and improve upon a company's intangible assets.
Rating:
Summary: Putting the knowledge economy on a sound business foundation
Review: To this day, Sveiby's "New Organizational Wealth" stands apart in that the book remains one of the few to make a serious attempt to place the benefits of the somewhat nebulous concept of the knowledge economy on a sound economic and business foundation. (Paul Strassman takes a similar approach, but more towards the macroeconomic level, in his articles in Knowledge Management magazine.) Readers of the "New Organizational Wealth" will likely want to visit Sveiby's web site to get access to some of the tools he has since developed to help implement systems to measure and improve upon a company's intangible assets.
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