Since the dawn of mankind, societies have sought to build infrastructures. These infrastructures can be divided into two regimes, physical infrastructure and intellectual capital, or knowledge, infrastructure. Once a society develops infrastructure the management of that infrastructure becomes paramount so that the society executes its value optimally. In the evolution of societies there is a constant shift from reliance on physical infrastructure to intellectual capital infrastructure. This will continue in perpetuity. This further emphasizes the importance of managing knowledge optimally. This book provides a model and framework for achieving knowledge management at a high level and lays a foundation for how one might think about managing knowledge. Very accessible and a quick read, this book is of value to the novice and executive leadership alike and will provide stimulus for discussions about intellectual capital in many arenas, be the corporate, non-profit, government, defence, and so forth.

Finally, a group of Professors, learned men and women have come together to address the issues of poverty, ignorance and disease through this volume. As Minister of State for ICT, I find this book awakening our minds, as leaders, to the importance of science and technology in our journey, as Africans, towards development. I wish to add that the key starting point, to fully implement what has been so carefully suggested in this volume, is the education of primary and secondary school children and teaching them how to use the keyboard and how to hold the mouse at an early age so that the computer becomes part of these children’s lives. It is always painful to see a very brilliant African student wasting valuable study time, which should be used for innovation projects, still struggling to find where letters are on the keyboard! This is why African leaders must advocate for IT penetration through schools and universities so that young people grow up using computers as part and parcel of their lives. Only then will such people be able to innovate and come up with applicable technologies to change people’s lives.

In a world economy increasingly built on a knowledge base, managing knowledge capital is key to success for organisations. Doing this well means paying attention to both human and technological capital: knowledge comes from both. But creating, exploiting and managing knowledge well within companies of all sizes is not simply a matter of ensuring that good people and excellent systems are in place. It requires a planned programme of management and, critically, an integrative approach. This book defines the conditions necessary for implementing a properly integrated knowledge management initiative in an organisation. It offers practical, workable advice on developing the optimal conditions for knowledge management, including the issue of securing that all-important buy-in from management and staff. And it focuses strongly on how to develop an integrative, systematic approach. Rooted in the academic literature, and illustrated by studies of complex international organisations that face huge challenges in terms of managing and optimising the value of knowledge to bring success, the authors have developed a practical knowledge management framework that can be applied in any organisational setting. Of course, many organisations successfully pass through the initial implementation phases of a knowledge management programme, but fall at hurdles later in the course because the right attention is not paid to the issue on a long term basis. How many organisations do we all know of who have done exactly this? It is investment wasted and, often, a loss of organisational confidence in its ability to manage the issue. The book addresses this, too, with a substantial section addressed to sustainability and the longer term. In all, there are solutions offered here to issues of great importance in modern organisations, issues that will only grow in significance. Organisations that are serious about marshalling and exploiting their knowledge capital will welcome this kind of help.