World Congress on Intellectual Capital Readings

Nick Bontis, Nick Bontis

• Verlag: Routledge
• Jahr: 2007
• ISBN:
  9781136347955
• Auflage: 1
• Thema: Business
• Thema: Business General

An impressive collection of the latest cutting-edge work in the dynamic field of intellectual capital. Experts from around the world discuss the current state of affairs from a variety of perspectives, providing a cross-disciplinary view of the field. All contributors presented their research at the top global conference in this field - the World Congress on Intellectual Capital. The underlying theme of the book is to explain how an organization can identify, measure, manage, leverage and act upon its collective intelligence towards the pursuit of sustainable innovation. The book is divided into three main parts which first establish a foundation of literature, then examine various measurement approaches and finally conclude with a variety of applications. "This collection of papers from the conference is special for its seminal research, strategic visions, and thought-provoking discussions. Make sure this book has a place in your library!"
Dr. Jac Fitz-enz, Founder and Chairman, Saratoga Institute

1

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP ON INTELLECTUAL CAPITAL¹

Nick Bontis

DeGroote Business School, McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada

[email protected]

and

Danny Nikitopoulos

DeGroote Business School, McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada

[email protected]

ABSTRACT

A synopsis of key topics, issues, and findings, as presented at the 4th World Congress on Intellectual Capital, hosted by McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. There were 536 delegates from thirty-two countries who discussed the growing importance of intellectual capital. This paper highlights the key messages from the keynote speakers of the conference. We include a summary of the presentations of such luminaries as Shahla Aly (VP Communication Sector at IBM Canada), Stephen Denning (KM Director of the World Bank), Don Tapscott (Chairman of Digital 4Sight), Ante Pulic and Ursula Schneider (Directors of the Austrian Intellectual Capital Research Centre), Tom Jenkins (CEO of OpenText), Leif Edvinsson (VP of Knexa.com Enterprises), Verna Allee (President of Integral Performance Group), and Don Morrison (COO of Research in Motion).

INTRODUCTION

The World Congress on Intellectual Capital, hosted by McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, took place from 17–19 January, 2001. In attendance were 536 delegates from thirty-two countries who discussed and presented papers on the growing importance of intellectual capital. This event is recognized as the premier conference for academic researchers in the field of intellectual capital. The conference program included several guest practitioner speakers as well as exhibitors and an interactive knowledge café.

The World Congress attracts the leading thought leaders in the IC field, and the 2001 roster of keynote speakers represented luminaries from a variety of industries. The following highlights the key messages from the keynote speakers. We include a summary of the presentations of such luminaries as Shahla Aly (VP Communication Sector at IBM Canada), Stephen Denning (KM Director of the World Bank), Don Tapscott (Chairman of Digital 4Sight), Ante Pulic and Ursula Schneider (Directors of the Austrian Intellectual Capital Research Centre), Tom Jenkins (CEO of OpenText), Leif Edvinsson (VP of Knexa.com Enterprises), Verna Allee (President of Integral Performance Group), and Don Morrison (COO of Research in Motion).

SHAHLA ALY–VP COMMUNICATION SECTOR, IBM CANADA

Shahla Aly commenced the proceedings of the World Congress by commenting on the developments of knowledge-intensive e-business and giving those in attendance a keen insight into what can be expected from the sector and IBM in the future.

At the heart of her discussion, Aly described the three major technological forces that will evolve the Internet and the way people and companies share knowledge and do business: (1) increase in bandwidth; (2) pervasive computing, and (3) deep computing.

As bandwidth increases and broadband networks continue to be deployed, the quality and experience of the Internet will increase dramatically. Aly equated the impact of bandwidth on humanity to that of the impact of electricity on the same, and said it would allow us to share a more natural interactive experience on the Web.

What we can expect from this advanced interactivity is what she described as pervasive computing. Pervasive computing will allow people to share a more personal and interactive experience that is more responsive to the user’s patterns, trends, and personal characteristics and preferences. To much bemoaning in the audience, Aly provided the example that one day our alarm clocks will sound 15 minutes earlier, as they will be able to input and process information of a traffic jam on the sleeper’s route to work.

Deep computing is the third major technological force she discussed. Most people are familiar with Gary Kasparov’s infamous chess matches against IBM’s Deep Blue computer. The ability to do mass calculations of algorithms and permutations by machines in the future will provide users with a variety of extremely complex applications at their fingertips.

With respect to commerce, Aly assured the conference delegates that, in the next generation of e-business, the companies who emerge as global players will be those who successfully bind these new technological forces with robust business models. Aly explained that the “dot-com” crash of 2000 was a result of a lack of relevant business models among many nascent e-businesses who did not consider business first, and technology second.

Overall, in the next generation of e-business we can expect a world of change and growth. Aly gauged that on a scale of 1 to 10, the Internet at the time of the conference sat at about a 1.5 or, alternately, at the stage of the automobile around the year 1910. Commenting on the proceedings of the congress, Aly emphasized the importance of exploring every aspect of intellectual capital: “There is no aspect too little to be explored.”

STEPHEN DENNING–KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT DIRECTOR, WORLD BANK

As Knowledge Management Director at the World Bank, Stephen Denning has spearheaded the bank’s knowledge program since 1996. At the World Congress, Denning discussed how storytelling can serve as a powerful tool for organizational change and knowledge management to further develop an organization’s intellectual capital.

Through countless transactions over time, the bank had accumulated a tremendous amount of know-how. What seized the attention of Denning was that none of this intellectual capital was organized by the World Bank to help the people of the world solve their problems more efficiently. Most people were making the same mistakes over and over again.

As with any major organizational change, especially in the field of intellectual capital, Denning discussed the obstacles involved in his ambition to transform the World Bank from a historically entrenched lending institution to a new “knowledge bank.” It was the idea of storytelling that became the catalyst for the transformation of the World Bank. Denning shared with the audience many anecdotal reports of storytelling that served as an effective medium to communicate the importance of intellectual capital development within the bank.

Storytelling implies using the story as an means to convey a message or idea, whether it be regarding intellectual capital, knowledge management, total quality management, or any other organizational issue. This form of communication not only imparts information to the recipient but also allows them to get inside, to live and feel the idea.

Denning explained that storytelling can have extraordinary power in transforming individuals, organizations, and ourselves. Telling a story can enable and accelerate change by providing direct access to the living part of the organization, and so lead to change in the organization. Storytelling helps to get inside the minds of individuals and affect how they think, worry, wonder, agonize, and dream about themselves, and, in the process, create and recreate their organization and their lives. Storytelling enables the individuals in an organization to see themselves and the organization in a different light, and, through storytelling, take decisions and change their behavior in accordance with these new perceptions, insights, and identities.

DON TAPSCOTT–CHAIRMAN, DIGITAL 4SIGHT

Don Tapscott was once identified by former U.S. Vice President Al Gore as “the world’s Internet guru.” Tapscott argued that strong business models must be in place first before a firm can generate any wealth in the new economy. The new economy has given birth to his idea of “business webs,” which are a new partnership of customers, suppliers, affinity groups, and competitors who cooperate to provide a joint, value-added service for the customer. In his keynote presentation to conference delegates, Tapscott highlighted five types of business webs:

• Agora business webs—which turn the marketplace of the Internet into a boundless meeting place where customers and firms meet to discover the price of a good or product
• Aggregation business webs—which organize and choreograph the distribution of goods, services, and information
• Value-chain business webs—which replace make/sell push models with demand-driven value chains
• Alliance business webs—which produce open free markets where selfish agents combine to maximize utility
• Distributive business webs—which facilitate the exchange of goods and services over the Web

Tapscott explained that business webs allow customers to become part of a seamless value-chain process, thus creating a transparent world. Intellectual capital flows through every facet of a business transaction, and it can be applied to all areas of knowledge assets that can be co-owned by various partners in the web. He described the following key intellectual capital assets:

• Human capital—knowledge assets contained in employees
• Structural knowledge—KM systems, databases
• Marketplace capital—brand, customers

According to Tapscott, all three facets of intellectual capital can be combined into the “business web” model. Successful companies will combine a robust business model with intellectual capital management to form a new advantage known as “digital capital.” He concluded his presentation by describing a massive explosion of the “Hypernet,” which connects everyone and everything using multiple smart devices that are mobile.

ANTE PULIC AND URSULA SCHNEIDER–DIRECTORS, AUSTRIAN INTELLECTUAL CAPITAL RESEARCH CENTRE

Ante Pulic and Ursula Schneider operate the Austrian Intellectual Capital Research Centre (AICRC). The AICRC is an organization that strives to enhance knowledge exchange and international cooperation in the areas of intellectual capital and knowledge management. The AICRC’s primary initiatives are to raise awareness of the importance of intellectual capital in German-speaking countries and in Eastern Europe. The institute is committed to the development of intellectual capital measurement methodologies. The AICRC was founded by a cross-functional and multicultural group. The intellectual diversity has become the institute’s fundamental strength in achieving its goals. The “Best Paper Award” at the World Congress is an extension of the ground-breaking research that the AICRC has conducted.

Schneider started her keynote address by reminiscing about a field that was once occupied by dreamers who sought to make intellectual capital a priority for senior managers. She argued that today’s concern is not about dreaming anymore, but about measuring. In the language of Stephen Denning, she insisted, “nobody has told me the right stories to help us learn about measuring intellectual capital.”

For IC initiatives to be successfully adopted, Schneider advised that they need to be embedded in everyday life: in the core operations and procedures of the organization. From the AICRC’s experiences, there is leadership by European enterprises in the field of intellectual capital and knowledge management because of the diversity inherent in the continent. She described diversity as an important knowledge-building asset that is to be expected from a continent exceptionally rich in history, diverse in culture and language, and unique in structure from country to country.

Pulic’s work is guided by the notion that nothing can be successfully managed if it is not adequately measured, and thus his major area of interest is the measurement of IC. Pulic and his team hope to determine the relationships between intangible and tangible assets. He argued that by measuring intellectual capital using their value added efficiency index (VAIC), companies can develop better control over the visible and invisible parts of the company. VAIC is a software-aided tool that is applicable at both the micro-and macro-level of business analysis. To date, three companies have utilized it, and Pulic shared success stories of the creation of value in their businesses.

Some of the AICRC projects intended for the future include a knowledge forum, where people can meet virtually online, and a distributed MBA program on intellectual capital in connection with three German universities, as well as knowledge-intensive companies such as Siemens and Daimler Chrysler.

TOM JENKINS–CEO, OPENTEXT CORPORATION

Tom Jenkins is the Chief Executive Officer of OpenText Corporation, which is one of the largest document management companies in the world. Jenkins provided valuable insight into the field of intellectual capital from the perspective of a vendor of KM software.

The application of software tools to manage a firm’s intellectual assets has driven his Waterloo, Ontario, company to achieve over $300 million in revenues. Jenkins recounted the origins of OpenText as a vendor in the knowledge management arena. What began originally as an Oxford English Dictionary project, moved toward developing search technology with the likes of Yahoo! and About.com. Taking into consideration the desire for long-term wealth creation, OpenText altered its strategy by moving out of the consumer markets to focus on the more lucrative business-to-business sector, where it still deals today.

In 1995 the company undertook what Jenkins referred to as a “crazy idea” and developed its first KM suite that was fully integrated into an HTML browser. In that year the company made $2 million in revenues. The growth in awareness of intellectual capital has been remarkable, as OpenText currently does over $300 million in business worldwide. Jenkins noted that the growth of intellectual capital and knowledge management can be witnessed by the change in tone, where once the words were intimidating, they have now become widely recognized as an ongoing concern for organizations.

At the heart of OpenText is the flagship product, Livelink. Livelink has developed into an innovative intranet, extranet and e-business application. The tool allows dynamic collaboration on projects and work by connecting employees, business partners, and customers across global enterprises and online trading communities. Currentl...

Inhaltsverzeichnis

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• About the Authors
• Foreword
• Introduction
• 1. Thought Leadership on Intellectual Capital
• 2. Managing Organizational Knowledge by Diagnosing Intellectual Capital: Framing and Advancing the State of the Field
• 3. Digital Knowledge: Copyright Intellectual Property and the Internet
• 4. The Power of Knowledge-Pattern Recognition
• 5. Competitive Capital: A Fourth Pillar of Intellectual Capital?
• 6. Strategic Knowledge Sourcing, Integration, and Assimilation: A Capabilities-Portfolio Perspective
• 7. Integrating Organizational Learning and Knowledge management: a case study
• 8. Intellectual Capital Disclosures in Swedish Annual Reports
• 9. Relevant Experiences in Measuring and Reporting Intellectual Capital in European Pioneering Firms
• 10. Understanding Intellectual Capital statements: designing and Communicating Knowledge Management Strategies
• 11. The Learning Capacity Index A Measurement System for Linking Capacity to Learn and Financial Performance
• 12. Developing a Measure of Knowledge Management
• 13. Innovation Capability–Benchmarking System (ICBS)
• 14. Development and Implementation of an Intellectual Capital Report for a Research Technology Organization
• 15. For Better or Worse? Assessing the Costs and Benefits of Contingent Knowledge-Work as an Investment in Intellectual Capital
• 16. Managing Human Capital with Competency-Based Human Resources Management
• 17. A Dialectical Model for Best–Practices Development
• 18. De-Biasing Science and Technology Investment Decisions
• 19. An Examination of the Transfer of Intellectual Capital across Cultures
• 20. Knowledge-Sharing in Networked Organizations
• Index