Zero Space: Moving Beyond Organizational Limits

Frank Lekanne Deprez is senior consultant at KPMG Knowledge Advisory Services and part-time associate professor at the Universities of Professional Education Zuyd, Heerlen, The Netherlands. He advises national and international organizations on operational and strategic knowledge management and business integration issues and on creating vibrant virtual communities. His passion is helping organizations target and apply knowledge when and where it is really needed.
Before joining KPMG, Lekanne Deprez was a research associate at Tilburg University and held management and functional positions at Royal Dutch Airlines (KLM). From 1995 to 1997, he was manager of market and product development at Galileo Nederland, Ltd. He is coauthor of Value-Based Knowledge Management (1998) and The Knowledge Dividend (2000).
René Tissen is managing director of KPMG Knowledge Advisory Services and professor of business management at the School of Business at Nyenrode University, The Netherlands. As an inter-
national consultant and researcher, he specializes in advising companies on boardroom-level matters involving knowledge management, organization, and human resource management. Previously, he held a number of executive and senior management positions in Dutch industry and government, as well as positions abroad.
René Tissen is coauthor of Value-Based Knowledge Management (1998), The Knowledge Dividend (2000), Weightless Wealth (2000), Telling IT Like IT Is (2002), and Seven Deadly Sins of Management (2002).

What would happen if you could achieve business success without owning any assets, but could simply enjoy the benefits of them? What if companies were able to react instantly to changing circumstances by operating in negative time? What if you didn't need management to run your business?
Zero Space defines a business model in which an organization achieves success without owning assets or needing management. In a zero space organization, knowledge is the only true currency and people are the business's assets and its investors in future success.
Through eight new organizational principles the authors illustrate how "zero-mindedness" is essential for the new economy. Just as organizations will have to exist in less tangible, less prescribed forms, so will thinking have to become less departmentalized, less closely guarded. This new open-mindedness or "zero mind-set" targets knowledge so that an organization applies it when and where it is really needed.
The authors-two top executives at one of the "big five" accounting and consulting firms-show how to create a zero-space organization: a value-adding, quick-reacting, non-centralized, non-standardized, innovation-generating workplace for dedicated talent.

Preface
Introduction: Time to Break Out

Part I The Power of Zero Mindedness
Chapter 1: Zero Rules
Chapter 2: The Currency of Zero Space

Part II The Eight Key Features of Zero Space
Chapter 3: Zero Space Infinite Potential
Chapter 4: Zero Matter
Chapter 5: Zero Time
Chapter 6: Zero Value Gap
Chapter 7: Zero Learning Lag
Chapter 8: Zero Management
Chapter 9: Zero Resistance
Chapter 10: Zero Exclusion
Chapter 11: Zero Tech

Part III Launching into Zero Space
Chapter 12: Zeroing in on Reality
Chapter 13: Networking with Networks
Chapter 14: Partnerships: Releasing the Power of Unlike Minds
Chapter 15: Communing into Zero Space
Chapter 16: Information Technology: Spider or Fly?
Chapter 17: What s in Store?
Chapter 18: Making People the Nonzeros of Zero Space
Chapter 19: Breaking Free
Notes
Index
About the Authors