Part C
Toolkits for
Tomorrow
Part B described challenges and opportunities that are affecting organizations of all types and size. Some developments, such as the Internet, are already having a dramatic impact on many aspects of business life. Others, such as telework, are being adopted in a more evolutionary manner. Whatever your position, and wherever you are, you cannot afford to ignore these changes. You may have a choice as to whether you work in a virtual team or not. You may decide that using the Internet is for someone else or you may decide that some of the opportunities discussed earlier offer significant advantages for you, your colleagues and your organization. Either way, you need to make informed choices, and if you embark on a new way of working or doing business, do whatever you can to be successful.
This part of the book provides some practical tools to help you make informed choices and be successful in the networked knowledge economy. In general, it is about optimizing and aligning resources that are crucial for success. The most important of these resources are information and knowledge, technology and people. The chapters in this part consider in sequence the individual, then the team, the organization, and the collaborative interprise, such as a virtual corporation. To be successful at each level needs a holistic approach that integrates work with effective management of the resources just mentioned. This can be represented as a matrix (see Table C.1) that shows some of the topics addressed in each chapter.
Table C.1 Some of the topics addressed in each chapter
| Work | Knowledge | Technology | Organization | |
| Individual (Chapter 5) | Knowledge work; networking | Competencies development learning | Workstations; productivity tools | Knowledge; skills; flexibility |
| Team (Chapter 6) | Tasks; processes | Communities | Groupware; applications | Team-building; virtual teams |
| Enterprise (Chapter 7) | Globalization; core processes; knowledge-based strategies | Knowledge management; IRM; IC measurement | Intranet; email | Cultures; structures |
| Interprise (Chapter 8) | Collaborative alliances | Sharing; protecting | Internet/intranet | Virtual organizations |
There is naturally overlap and significant interaction between the different boxes of the matrix. It is the management of these interfaces that presents the greatest challenge and reward.
If this were a hypertext medium, such as a web page, and not a book, these elements and relationships could be dealt with in any order to suit the reader. Confined here as we are to a linear sequence, this part of the book follows this structure row by row. Each chapter concentrates on decisions and methods for working in an environment that is global, networked and knowledge intensive. A key feature of each toolkit is that it invites you to become actively involved. There are questions to stimulate your thinking and activities to work through. Use the toolkits as a practical way of planning your work.