November 2008 Knowledge Management Expert from Harvard Speaks at NUI Galway

Business and knowledge management expert Professor Larry Prusak, of Harvard Business School and Babson College, will be in NUI Galway for a public lecture on Thursday, 20 November. Entitled 'The Future of Knowledge', the lecture will be hosted by the Centre for Innovation and Structural Change at NUI Galway in conjunction with InterTradeIreland. The event takes place at 6pm in Room CA118, 1st Floor, Cairnes Building, NUI Galway. Larry Prusak is a leading authority on Knowledge Management and has authored six books in the area. He was the founder and Executive Director of the Institute for Knowledge Management, a global consortium engaged in advancing the practice of knowledge management. Professor Prusak's lecture will look at the organisational roles, design processes, incentives and strategies that work best for knowledge management. He will address changes that are taking place globally which put a premium on knowledge for organisations and nations. In particular, he will focus on the impact of the break-up of the monopoly on 'useful' knowledge that was held by the US and Western Europe for the past century, and the concurrent extreme drop in information transaction costs brought on by the IT revolution. Professor Prusak will discuss how these two movements have changed the way we need to think about how wealth is created and how work is organised. According to Willie Golden, Director of the Centre for Innovation and Structural Change at NUI Galway: "Knowledge, how it flows and how it is managed, has a huge impact on organisations and on society. While we all understand the word economy, as Ireland seeks to become a 'knowledge economy', there is still much to be understood about knowledge. Professor Prusak can provide us with insights into how current organisational models might be changed to harness this knowledge more effectively". Professor Prusak has been studying knowledge and learning in organisations for the past two decades. He has extensive experience in helping organisations with their information and knowledge resources, these organisations include Novartis, McKinsey, NASA, World Bank, and the United Nations. For further information or to confirm your attendance, please email cisc@nuigalway.ie or telephone Angela Sice on 091 492817. -ends-