Shares thoughts on success and knowledge management

Information Outlook, May, 1999 by Laurence Prusak

The Minneapolis Conference Program Committee

Innovative thinking and thought-provoking ideas are certain to be shared at the General Session at the 90th Annual Conference in Minneapolis if the discussion between General Session speaker Laurence Prusak and the Minneapolis Planning Committee is any indicator.

In January, the members of the Conference Planning Committee for the 1999 SLA Minneapolis Conference participated in a telephone interview with Prusak. The members of the committee are Susan Klopper, chair, Peter Sidney, Donna Scheeder, Lynn Tinsley, and Suzi Hayes, committee proctor and SLA president.

Prusak is the executive director for the Institute for Knowledge Management for IBM. An expert in knowledge management, he joined IBM Global Services as managing principal to head up the knowledge consulting activities in the IBM Consulting Group. He previously was a principal at The Ernst & Young Center for Business Innovation, where his primary research and consulting interests focused on organizational knowledge and information management.

He has been widely published and recently co-authored two books with Thomas H. Davenport, a professor and director of the Information Management Program at the University of Texas, and a respected leader on management consulting issues. Their first book, Information Ecology (Oxford University Press, 1997), offers a new approach to the management of information in organizations based on dynamic and human-based principles. The second, Working Knowledge (Harvard Business School Press, 1998), is the first full scale treatment of knowledge in organizations from an executive perspective. In 1997, he edited the anthology Knowledge in Organizations and was a contributing author to the California Management Review's special issue on knowledge and the firm published in the spring 1998 issue, co-authoring the article "Eleven Sins of Knowledge Management," with Liam Fahey. In 1994, he and James McGee wrote Managing Information Strategically, which is a basic text on the role of information in gaining competitive advantage.

Prusak was a principal in the Information Management and Systems Group at Temple, Barker & Sloane before he joined Ernst & Young. At Temple, Barker & Sloane, he was responsible for building a consulting practice centered on helping firms manage their information resources with the most efficient and effective operations.

He is a visiting faculty member of the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at Simmons College. He has an M.S. in information science from Simmons College, an M.A. in economic and social history from New York University and a B.A. in history from Long Island University.

Forthright and thoughtful in presenting his view on the role of library education and educators, Prusak firmly believes that our profession is a vocational one unlike other fields of study which are considered pure disciplines, based on a theoretical body of knowledge. Library school curriculums traditionally have been focused on presenting courses based on tools for practicing professionals rather than exploring fields which have an impact on information management such as cognitive science, economics, sociology, and management. Prusak has first hand experience with academia having worked as an instructor at the Simmons Library Science School and as a professor of history early in his career. His own personal experience in obtaining the M.L.S. mirrors this focus.

"Because of the vocational focus of our library school programs and the consequential perception by others, we are not truly recognized and valued for contributions that we can and do make to knowledge management initiatives. We can and must make changes to the professional preparation for future knowledge managers. In some cases, this perception of what an M.L.S. means, what a librarian is, can be detrimental to our careers." Instead, he thinks that the programs need to structured more as a pure discipline emphasizing the theoretical cognitive science, economics, and sociology. As he put it, "Where is the science in library science? Where is the philosophical underpinning?" He recommends that the name of the program be changed to information management.

When asked with whom should we be partnering, what with what departments should we be affiliating, Prusak urges information professionals to seek out the "most desirable position in corporate organization chart. Success lies in making yourself essential to the fulfillment of the mission of the organization." He suggests including marketing departments to develop marketing strategies and research and development.

Prusak reads several publications to keep abreast. They include a variety of publications including The Economist, and others focusing on disciplines related to the disciplines that drive the businesses he serves. He also reads heavily in the areas of psychology, sociology, and cognitive science. He highly recommends Envisioning Information by Edward Tufte and a essay by Issiah Berlin titled, "What Does a Great Politician Know?"