& Book Reviews

John Seely Brown and Paul Duguid. The Social Lifeof Information. Harvard Business School Press,Cambridge, MA 2002 (paperback).

All too often some of us get bowled over by tech-nology. It is particularly easy to see some technolo-gies as rich sources of future potentiality. But thesepotentialities do not develop on their own. Theyneed humans to develop them and they developwithin a social context. The appreciation for thissocial context is often missing in much of theresearch and practice that surrounds technology.

Although all technologies are social technologiesin this sense it seems that information technologiesare the prime current source of our enthusiasms.This is not to say that other technologies such asnanotechnology, material technology and biotech-nology fare any better. However, it is on the failureof many of us to appreciate the social dimensionthat Brown and Duguid focus.

Brown and Duguid come to this book withimpeccable credentials. They have both beenthoughtful observers and practitioners for manyyears and have made many valuable contributions.They have served the cause of a richer understand-

ing of the nature and potential of informationtechnology valiantly for many decades.

What of the book itself? It provides a wonder-fully clear and well-thought-out discussion of therich social environment in which informationtechnology finds itself. Each chapter is repletewith valuable insights, and has moments whenwe are made to see clearly the limitations of tech-nology determinism and our sometimes ineffableability to ignore the richness of social context.

As I have indicated in my editorial, I feel that thetime is right for taking a closer look at the issuesthat are raised in Brown and Duguid’s wonderfulbook. All too often we are seduced by our ownworld view and forget the multitude of valuableperspectives offered by others. We are in dangerof becoming what the Victorian anthropologistswere often vilified for. That is, we consider thatour approach is the only approach. Our perspectivethe only perspective. To adapt Hamlet ‘There ismore in Heaven and Earth than is dreamed of inour philosophy’ and Brown and Duguid enrichour philosophy by expanding and deepening ourunderstanding of social context.

Anthony Wensley

Robert S. Frey. Successful Proposal Strategies for SmallBusiness: Using Knowledge Management to Win Gov-ernment, Private Sector and International Contracts.Artech House, Boston, MA, 2002, ISBN 1-58053-332-9.

The introduction to this book notes that ‘In manyways, a small company’s future performance inthe marketplace will be a direct result of how effec-tively it chooses to implement disciplined businessdevelopment, proposal development and KM pro-cesses and methodologies . . . ’. Of course, theauthor does not intend to imply that these are thesole sources of success for small business but theywould certainly seem to be increasingly necessary.In the following review I would like to take theopportunity of reviewing some of the insightsthat have been developed with respect to managingsmall business with specific reference to Knowl-edge Management.

We have often argued that, from the standpointof process management, small businesses have

advantages. This primarily derives from the factthat integration is often not a problem since manyof the processes are enacted by the same person orpeople who actually directly interact with custo-mers and suppliers. However, there are likely tobe distinct problems in small businesses creating,gathering, storing and sharing appropriate knowl-edge as the basis for conducting business pro-cesses.

Small and medium-sized businesses are often ata considerable disadvantage when it comes to seek-ing business from government agencies. Theseagencies often have very detailed requirementsboth in terms of contract deliverables and also interms of the contents and presentation of propo-sals. Unless a small business has extensive experi-ence of developing these proposals it may not beable to take advantage of genuine business oppor-tunities as a result of not having this specializedknowledge. Robert Frey’s book goes a long wayto providing small and medium-sized companieswith this invaluable knowledge structured in

Knowledge and Process Management Volume 9 Number 4 pp 264–266 (2002)Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI: 10.1002/kpm.157

Copyright # 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

such as way as to make proposal generation if notpainless certainly significantly less painful.

Another problem with small and medium-sizedcompanies is that it is difficult for them to buildknowledge assets. This is particularly true in areaswhich require the formulation and management ofcomplex proposals. Large companies have thecapacity to learn from experience. Using a portfolioapproach they can essentially learn from their mis-takes and, at least in the good times, they couldprice their proposals accordingly. Small andmedium-sized businesses typically cannot use theportfolio approach. They need to do whateverthey can to maximize the probability that theywill win each and every proposal they make. Thisis where books like Robert Frey’s can begin to helpeven the odds. Of course, other strategies are help-ful too such as teaming up with other small andmedium-sized businesses, though it is worthremembering that these strategies also bring withthem potentially greater complexity and needmanaging.

Robert Frey does not simply provide an over-view of the proposal development process. Thisbook provides detailed knowledge with respect to

every stage of this process gleaned from a widevariety of sources. In providing this broad anddeep source of information this book will proveinvaluable to many managers of small andmedium-sized businesses.

It is worth noting that much of the knowledgeprovided with respect to government and quasi-government agencies is relevant to the US context.I would suggest, however, that the book would be avaluable addition to the shelves of business man-agers of non-US companies. There are two distinctbases for this judgement. The first is that the knowl-edge that pertains to the proposal generating pro-cess and knowledge management is valuable toany small and medium-sized business wherever itis located. Second, it may be the case that it wouldbe of value for non-US small and medium-sizedbusinesses to gather knowledge of opportunities inthe USA with respect to governmental and quasi-governmental agencies. Even if they do not con-sider submitting proposals on their own theremay well be opportunities to join with US-basedorganizations or organizations that have need oftheir special skills and competencies.

Anthony Wensley

Ronald Mascitelli. Building a Project-Driven Enter-prise. Technology Perspectives, Northridge, CA,2002, ISBN 0-9662697-1-3.

In many organizations a significant aspect of theprocess of managing the business is focused onproject management. Indeed, following on fromthe redesign of processes we find that many orga-nizations have sought to develop lean approachesto project management. Ronald Mascitelli hasbeen in the business of lean project managementfor many years and has developed a valuable inte-grated approach that can significantly improve theproductivity of project teams.

At the outset of the book the author sets out fiveprinciples of lean thinking:

1. Precisely specify the value of each project.2. Identify the value stream for each project.3. Allow value to flow without interruption.4. Let the customer pull value from the project

team.5. Continuously pursue perfection.

It would be fair to say that the remainder of thebook explores approaches to achieve performancethat lives up to each of these principles. For exam-ple, in discussing the value of the project the authorappropriately directs us towards the customer. Thecustomer defines the value of the outputs of any

project. This, of course, requires close cooperationbetween the project team and the customer at allstages of the project from initial project definition topost-delivery and maintenance (where appropriate).

Similarly, in discussing the management of thevalue stream the author provides us with prag-matic and straightforward ways of identifyingactivities that interrupt the flow of value. Thisboth directs our attention to the traditional classifi-cation of activities as non-value adding and alsofirmly reminds us that projects and the manage-ment of projects is all about flow. When time tomarket becomes a more and more critical factorin achieving even competitive parity this is a veryvaluable perspective to keep us focused on.

One of the valuable lessons from business pro-cess engineering was the need to look at the valueadded in business processes and strip out non-value-adding activities. What was often missed inacting on this lesson was the true source of valueand the need to support a clear and unequivocalfocus on the customer. Many business processengineering projects led to lean processes thatfailed to provide true value to the customer. Oftenactivities were stripped out of the overall businessprocesses that provided for rapid, rich responses tocustomers and a significant degree of responsive-ness and flexibility to customer demands andneeds.

Knowledge and Process Management BOOK REVIEWS

Book Reviews 265

Project managers and managers in general willfind this an approachable book full of valuableinsights. This is not some esoteric abstract bookon project management. It delivers a well-thought-out approach and is full of useful andvaluable insights. Interestingly enough in manyways it complements Robert Frey’s book reviewedabove. Ronald Mascitelli provides a wealth of use-ful knowledge that can be put into practice whenmanaging projects and project teams. This is likelyto be helpful to small and medium-sized firms asthey develop projects that involve proposal genera-tion and when they work on the projects that pro-posals typically lead to.

The book is divided into four parts. In Part 1 theauthor discusses the principles that drive projectefficiency. The five principles of lean thinkinghave already been introduced above. The authoradds extensive discussion of such topics as ‘Mini-mizing Transaction Costs’ and ‘Time Batches andJIT Information’. In Part 2 the author focuses onthe methods of lean project management—it is inthis part that he introduces 12 methods that areboth pragmatic and powerful. Part 3 looks at the‘Special Case’ of new product development andfinally Part 4 discusses how one can go about build-ing a project-driven enterprise.

Anthony Wensley

BOOK REVIEWS Knowledge and Process Management

266 Book Reviews