Interactive Business Communities

Innovation in technology and services in our fast developing knowledge society no longer comes about as a result of specialized knowledge being pursued within a single corporation or at a single level within a corporation. In "Boundary Networking", Mitsuru Kodama, a senior academic who has also had a career in launching new ventures in the world of IT and communications technology, argues that a simple focus on developing new products and services is no longer sufficient. As hitherto separate fields merge, there is a need for dynamic processes and a new business architecture that enables managers to access diverse knowledge both inside and outside the corporation, share the knowledge, and integrate it.The cornerstone of the approach advocated by Professor Kodama is the concept of company-wide information enablers: Boundary Architects, who operate across organizational and knowledge boundaries, at all levels inside and outside the company, intrapreneuring and forming networks that transcend the restriction of existing formal arrangements.Through studies of different types of businesses including NTT DoCoMo; Nintendo; and Panasonic in Japan, Apple and Qualcomm in the US, and HTC; TSMC; and Chunghwa Telecom in Taiwan, the author describes how companies have started to take this path. He explains the kind of networks and strategic partnerships that have resulted and then provides practical guidelines on how to set about forming in-house business communities, entering strategic partnerships with other businesses, outsourcing strategically and forging interactive business communities with customers and others.Business educators, researchers and higher level students will find this book a valuable resource, but more particularly, senior executives with responsibility for strategy, especially in high tech industries, will gain insights that might prove key to tackling the technological, market and business discontinuities of the Twenty-first Century.