
42 Part I Information Crisis to Business Excellence
In the Information Age, Customers and end-Consumers as well as internal
Employees or Associates are Information Customers. Organizations communi-
cate with their Customers in many ways, such as marketing catalogs, emails or
phone calls, Web sites, billing statements, and newsletters, among others.
Employees or Associates who require Information to perform their work
are Knowledge Workers, according to the management gurus Peter Drucker and
Stephen Covey. Drucker coined the term Knowledge Worker when he foresaw
the impact of computing and Information Technology on business and society
as early as 1960. In 1966 Drucker writes, “Modern society is a society of large
organized institutions. In every one of them, including the armed services, the
center of gravity has shifted to the Knowledge Worker, the man who puts to
work what he has between his ears rather than the brawn of his muscles or the
skill of his hands.”
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INFORMATION-AGE BUSINESS PERSONNEL ARE KNOWLEDGE
WORKERS AND INFORMATION CONSUMERS — NOT “USERS”
Stephen Covey rightfully notes, “The most valuable assets of a 20th-century
company were its production equipment. The most valuable asset of a 21st-
century institution, whether business or non-business, will be its Knowledge
Workers and their productivity.”
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If the Father of Modern Management, Peter Drucker, recognized the ...