007 | Defining Knowledge with Laurence Prusak

On this episode Ed and Laurel are joined by Laurence Prusak, Ph.D.

Laurence Prusak was born in Brooklyn, NY and studied the History of Ideas in undergrad and graduate schools. After leaving academics as a career, he became interested in how organizations work and found work at several management consulting firms. Laurence was fortunate to land a job helping Ernst and Young develop a research and development office in Boston, and it was there when he met Tom Davenport and they became very interested in the role of knowledge in organizational life. Together they wrote a book called Working Knowledge which propelled the knowledge management movement. After that Laurence founded the IBM Institute for Knowledge Management and then became an advisor to NASA, the World Bank, and McKinsey and CO.

Laurence has co-authored 7 books and edited 4 others, as well as having written over 60 articles and have facilitated talks and courses at over 40 universities around the world. Laurence is also the co-author of The Smart Mission: NASA’s Lessons for Managing Knowledge, People, and Projects (MIT Press, August 2022), alongside Ed Hoffman and Matthew Kohut.