Product Description

The Secrets of Successful Idea Practitioners

Change management. Reengineering. Knowledge management. Major new management ideas are thrown at today's companies with increasing frequency-and each comes with evangelizing gurus and eager-to-assist implementation consultants. Only a handful of these ideas will be a good fit for your organization. Choose the right idea at the right time and your company can become more efficient, more effective, and more innovative. Choose the wrong one-or jump on the right bandwagon too late-and your company could fall hopelessly behind.

Thomas H. Davenport and Laurence Prusak say that some managers have found ways to improve their odds of success in the risky but essential game of idea management. In What's the Big Idea?, they introduce a largely unsung class of managers they call-idea practitioners-individuals who do the real work of importing and implementing new ideas into businesses. While gurus reap most of the credit when big ideas take flight, Davenport and Prusak's research reveals that idea practitioners actually play the most important role: They turn the right ideas into action.

Drawing from decades of consulting, academic, and business experience and from their novel study of more than 100 of these critical change leaders, What's the Big Idea? offers tools and frameworks for:

• Assessing the merits of the top business gurus
• Scanning and tracking emerging ideas in the marketplace
• Distinguishing promising ideas from rhetoric
• Refining ideas to suit your organization's particular needs
• Packaging and selling the idea internally
• Ensuring successful implementation

Davenport and Prusak prove that there are no faddish management ideas-only faddish ways of adopting them. Encouraging managers to embrace the power of ideas while avoiding the hype that often accompanies them, this pragmatic guide shows how passion and reason combine to build innovative companies.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #265816 in Books
• Published on: 2003-04
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 256 pages

From the Inside Flap
"In engaging language and with many current examples, Davenport and Prusak offer a convincing explanation of how a handful of organizations are able to consistently derive commercial benefit from the good ideas of their own people and others. I consider What’s the Big Idea? to be a must-read, whether you are seeking to market your own ideas or to convert the ideas of others to competitive advantage."
—Steve Kerr, Managing Director and Chief Learning Officer, Goldman Sachs

"In this original and important book, Davenport and Prusak answer their own question: the big idea is how ideas and their creators have shaped the foundations of management practices over the past four or five decades. What’s the Big Idea? thoroughly covers the history and sociology of ideas that have made a huge difference in how business is practiced."
—Warren Bennis, Distinguished Professor of Business, USC, and coauthor, Geeks & Geezers: How Era, Values, and Defining Moments Shape Leaders

"What's the Big Idea? is a brilliant guide to finding and implementing sound business ideas. Davenport and Prusak have uncovered fundamental truths about business knowledge that simply cannot be found elsewhere. This is a timeless and relentlessly useful book. If you want your company to keep getting better every day, buy this charming and well-written book, study it, and keep talking about it with your colleagues."
—Robert Sutton, Professor of Management Science and Engineering, Stanford, author, Weird Ideas That Work, and coauthor, The Knowing-Doing Gap.

"Davenport and Prusak’s innovative analysis focuses not only on the critical ideas that change the course of business performance, but, more important, on the people and processes that transform ideas into results. In their fascinating description of ‘idea practitioners,’ they will help readers to attain that lofty status."
—Gary W. Loveman, President & CEO, Harrah’s Entertainment, Inc.

About the Author
Thomas H. Davenport is Executive Director of the Accenture Institute for Strategic Change and a Professor at Babson College. Laurence Prusak is a researcher and consultant who coauthored In Good Company (with Don Cohen) and Working Knowledge (with Tom Davenport) and a Distinguished Scholar at Babson. H. James Wilson is a researcher and writer at the Institute for Strategic Change.

Customer Reviews

Limited Practical Use
The general overall structure of the first half of this text is sound and provides some food for thought to individuals trying to understand the psyche of creators and practitioners. Where this book shines is that it correctly points out that there are those that create, those that implement, and those that sustain any given idea, and that to be successful, a company needs a good dose of the second variety.

However, the second half of the book spends a lot of time trying to determine what made the best business theorists popular and this information is limited in a practical sense. It appears that there is some regret by the authors that they aren't considered "stars" and way too much time is spent trying to determine why "reengineering" became a negative term and how their pioneering thought should have been the standard. Unfortunately, these tangential aspects are a significant portion of the reading.

The section on knowledge management is a bit out of place, but it is a great topic in and of itself. More time should have been devoted to why KM is an important part of a company's ability to create. In summary, the book is O.K., but you might want to wait for the paperback or find it used.

A pragmatic guide of shaping organizational innovation
Ideas are a major ingredient of innovation; Davenport & Prusak has done a great job in illustrating the dyanmic of ideas in organizational context, as well as how managers & leaders can effectively capitalize on business & management ideas. There are a couple sections in 'What's The Big Idea' that I enjoyed very much: An interview with Steve Kerr, and a list of the top 200 business gurus (with the underlying ranking mechanism) in the appendix.

Enjoyable read for the idea practictioner and inspiring guru
This book was a great read discredited in chapter 8. The authors did a fantastic job summarizing what makes ideas work in an organization and the business model of business gurus. Their writing style was very readable, entertaining and enjoyable making this a good read that is easily recommendable. However, in chapter 8 they speak to close to their history and represent a view of knowledge management that may not be shared by all readers. One sentence highlighting that in a chapter that is otherwise represents their bias is not enough. Also, in chapter 9, the questions presented to an idea practictioner were leading. I will however find myself quoting the book so it is still a recommended read to broaden your thought leadership and success in pushing ideas forward. For the consultant make sure you complement this book with something that allows you to capture the client's view of value.