Corporate-action

Although Kemske calls his novel a "corporate nightmare," it's also a sci-fi novel. Literary critics often consider old genre ideas as fresh, new, and original when they first appear in a non-genre "literary novel." So it is in this case.

THE VIRTUAL BOSS's theme was old in sci-fi circles by the 1950s. A computer runs an office, and takes over with a mind of its own. THE VIRTUAL BOSS will remind many of the HAL 9000 in 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, or COLOSSUS: THE FORBIN PROJECT.

Kemske's computer is less interested in exploring space than in efficient office management. The result is an enjoyable book on modern cubicle culture.

Not a great prophetic book. Written in the early 1990s, Kemske predicted a future of high unemployment and 12-hour workdays. He failed to foresee the economic boom of the late 1990s, or the empowerment the internet brought to individuals. But there's still some good social commentary in this book.

A good book for those who enjoy reading about office politics and management and cublicle culture.

This is a scary book. This is a scary and well told tale. The underlying conceit is nearly science fiction but all too current and all too plausible to be just science fiction. Instead, call it a reality check. Computers are underestimated. They are ubiquitous. To those of us who know them, they can be scary. Floyd Kemske understands their prime directive and weaves a wonderful yarn. Let us wish it was only science fiction.

If you're a Dilbert fan, you'll love this book. While reading this book, I found myself laughing and crying at the same time. Since I was once a corporate slave myself, so many of the situations in this book were real to me. Consider if someone actually created a computerized manager for you. This manager did not have the power to hire or fire you and could only cajole you into being more productive. That's what this book is about. The "Virtual Boss" is like an Eliza program gone horribly wrong. This was one of those books where I was stopping every page or so and reading the jokes aloud to whoever would listen. Great fun.

This book is special in that it adds empirical support for the authors' business hypothesis. However, their ideas themselves are not revolutionary. Rather they organized and framed a lot of the ideas that today's business leaders already know and practice.

I suppose that the book is in the tradition of academic research paper rather than overblown business hyperbole. As with any academic oriented publications, they make less than interesting reading, but valuable nevertheless.

Mendelson and Ziegler combine solid research with interesting real-world company information to provide an insightful discussion of what it will take for tomorrow's companies to be successful. In brief, companies need to take a hard look at how effective they are at monitoring their business environment for new threats and opportunities, sharing knowledge across different parts of their company, strategic and operational decision-making, and focusing on key core competencies. The company's performance along these dimensions, or lack thereof, will provide clear directions for change and improvement.

The performance of the company along the above dimensions determines its Organizational IQ, which Mendelson and Ziegler's research shows is a strong indicator of financial performance. I find this Organization IQ concept very useful and practical, especially since the book provides guidelines for diagnosing IQ deficiencies and setting directions for improvement. The wealth of real company examples and case studies make the concepts in the book concrete and actionable.

I highly recommend the book to all senior managers, and anybody else interested in understanding what it will take to meet and successfully overcome the challenges of the information age.

The importance of this book can be judged by any employee asking why can't we work in an organisation which is better developed on the author's 5 Organisational IQ factors:

1 EXTERNAL INFORMATION AWARENESS, ie each part of our organisation captures external information (customers, technology opportunities, competitors' actions) quickly and accurately

2 EFFECTIVE DECISION ARCHITECTURE, ie in our organisation decisions are made at the right level (by the people with the best information and perspective). As a result decisions : are made quickly, have high quality, instill ownership and accountability

3 INTERNAL KNOWLEDGE DISSEMINATION, ie each part of our organisation knows what it needs to know when it needs to know it. Effective information flows 4-dimensionally: Horizontal, cross functional Top-down, org-wide goals and priorities Bottom-up, operational challenges and opportunities Learning, review over time of all of above

4 ORGANISATIONAL FOCUS, ie organisation systematically fights overload and complexity by: Limiting scope of the business; focusing on core competences; simplifying processes

5 CREATING AN INFORMATION AGE BUSINESS NETWORK, ie Organisation maximises the value of eternal partnerships by applying the above 4 High IQ factors to the entire business network

Would love to share experiences with anyone working or reading up on how to improve organisations IQ factors

chris macrae, chief infomediary, brandknowledge.com e-mail wcbn007@easynet.co.uk