The Monster under the Bed

Can your business compete?

In today's fast-paced world, knowledge is doubling nearly every seven years, while the life cycle of a business grows increasingly shorter. The best way -- and perhaps the only way -- to succeed is to become a "knowledge-based" business. In The Monster Under the Bed, Stan Davis and Jim Botkin show how:

* Every business can become a knowledge business
* Every employee can become a knowledge worker
* Every customer can become a lifelong learner

The Monster Under the Bed explains why it's necessary for businesses to educate employees and consumers. Consider the fact that the vast majority of 60 million PC owners, for example, learned to use their computers not at school but at work or at home. Davis and Botkin explain how any high-tech, low-tech, or no-tech company can discover new markets and create new sources of income by building future business on a knowledge-for-profit basis -- and how, once it does, its competitors must follow or fail.

Filled with examples of high-profile companies that are riding the crest of this powerful wave, The Monster Under the Bed is an insightful exploration of the many ways that the knowledge-for-profit revolution will profoundly affect our businesses, our educational processes, and our everyday lives.

In this incisive look at the impact of new information technology on business and education, the authors identify current trends and explain their importance in shaping the future. Index.

Companies in the business of providing knowledge for profit will dominate the 21st-century global marketplace. And to stay competitive, these companies will increasingly play the major role in making education a lifelong learning process for consumers, employees, and students alike. These are the startling trends revealed in this first in-depth study of the mushrooming knowledge-for-profit mega-industry that is already transforming the way we run our businesses and the way we learn. With knowledge doubling nearly every seven years, while the life cycles of businesses grow shorter and shorter, the best way to succeed in today's economy is to become a knowledge-based business - one that leverages the enormous economic value of knowledge. Utilizing the sophisticated tools and skills of the new information technology, any business can become a knowledge business. The proliferation of smart products and services makes it necessary to educate employees and consumers on their development and use. Stan Davis and Jim Botkin show you how to accomplish this. The Monster Under the Bed is packed with examples of companies like AT&T and Arthur Andersen that are riding the crest of this powerful new wave by creating and marketing products and services that make their customers smarter and their businesses more profitable. The same forces that are driving knowledge-for-profit businesses are dramatically changing education as we have known it. The vast majority of the more than 60 million PC owners, for example, learned how to use their computers either at work or at home, not in school. Spending by American companies on employee education in one recent year alone was equivalent to funding thirteen new Harvards. Education-intensive companies like Motorola have found that they gain as much as $30 in productivity for every dollar they invest in employee training. Davis and Botkin explain the opportunities and pitfalls of this revolution in knowledge and learning. They explain how

Publishers Weekly

Is America doomed to be the ``best schooled and least educated modern society''? Davis (Future Perfect) and Botkin (No Limits to Learning) ask and answer the question, predicting that America's schools will undergo an eventual metamorphosis because business (and business-driven learning) are likely to assume ``the major responsibility for the kind of education... necessary for any country to remain competitive in the new economy.'' The authors argue that ``smart technologies,'' effective institutional training and the phenomenon of lifelong learning will persuade educators that America has an invaluable opportunity ``to reinvigorate and even redefine'' its education system. Davis and Botkin's ideas could and should spark public policy debates. (Sept.)

Stan Davis is a distinguished public speaker, author, and business adviser, most known for his creative thinking and mind-stretching perspectives. His 2020 Vision was named Fortune magazine's Best Management Book of 1991 ("the most mind-bending of the bunch") and his influential work Future Perfect received Tom Peters' "Book of the Decade" Award in 1989. This is what led Federal Express, in 1993, to grant him their first "Visionary of the Year Award." His eight books appear in fifteen languages and he addresses audiences throughout the world. Dr. Davis consults about the strategy, technology, management, and organization of both major corporations and fast-growing enterprises. He taught for two decades at the Harvard Business School, and Columbia and Boston universities. He lives and works in Chestnut Hill, Boston, Massachusetts.