Book Brief: The Knowledge Engine

The Knowledge Engine: How to Create Fast Cycles of Knowledge-to-Performance and Performance-to-Knowledge
By Lloyd Baird and John C. Henderson
Berrett-Koehler, 2001
200 pages, $27.95

The authors—directors of Boston University's Leadership Institute and Systems Research Center, respectively—make the case for a "just-in-time" rather than a "just-in-case" approach to knowledge management. Rather than gather and store knowledge in hopes that someone will use it, Baird and Henderson show how to produce knowledge as part of the work process and quickly apply the new insights. The book is based on five years of research on such companies as BP p.l.c. and Merck & Co., Inc.