The standard bearers: Among the broader group of knowledge-related
books, the consensus of our experts was that these seven titles should
form the core of any KM library:
Wellsprings of Knowledge by Dorothy Leonard
The Knowledge-Creating Company by Ikujiro Nonaka and Hirotaka
Takeuchi
The New Organizational Wealth by Karl-Erik Svieby
The Living
Company by Arie de Geus
Intellectual Capital by Thomas A. Stewart
Working Knowledge by Thomas H. Davenport and Laurence Prusak;
Intellectual Capital, by Leif Edvinsson and Michael S. Malone.
Thus, here is the Knowledge Management Magazine First 100, an
imperfect listing of essential literature in the KM field. To assemble
the list, we conducted an informal survey of 20 magazine friends and
advisors (see "Introducing the Panel" below), asking them via
phone and email to name the books that most deeply influenced their
understanding of knowledge management.
The results were organized using the four lenses established in our
K-Map series (see KMM, October '98 through March '99) and then further
divided by themes emerging in our feature articles. Each title includes
its current publisher and date, preceded by its year of original
publication where relevant (except for a few out-of-print classics
included for their historical importance). Within themes, books are
listed in order by date, earlier books first. Each listing is followed
by a comment from a survey participant or a brief description of the
title.
Introducing the panel
A strong cast of KM practitioners, consultants and management gurus
responded to our request for book nominations. We didn't allow them to
name their own works, yet many of them were cited by others and are
therefore included. Without business affiliations and in alphabetical
order, they are: Stowe Boyd, Tom Davenport, Dan Holtshouse, Todd
Johnson, Bipin Junnarkar, John Kao, Tom Koulopolous, Yogesh Malhotra,
Regis McKenna, Carla O'Dell, Bruce Pasternack, John Peetz, Larry Prusak,
Michael Serino, Chuck Sieloff, Catherine Slater, Jack Whalen, Daniel
Wren and JoAnne Yates.
