Frank Leistner

After growing up in Germany, I ended up spending regular intervals in the United States:

- A high-school year in Corvallis, OR (1977-78)

- A college year at SUNY in Albany, NY (1983-84)

- Four years working for a Germany company in Mountain View, CA (1989-1993)

Starting out really close to the machine by developing computer operating systems, I moved to developing end-user software in 1993. Via consulting I finally found my great passion - helping people to share their knowledge. Since 1997 I have been leading knowledge management initiatives at SAS, the business analytics company. After meeting a range of authors at forums like the Harvard Learning Innovations Laboratory the wish to put some of my ideas and experiences into a book of my own grew. The final trigger to get me started in early 2009 was a great book writing success story I had seen on our corporate intranet.

My goal for "Mastering Organizational Knowledge Flow" was to write a practical book that provides valuable tips and is fun to read...

"The approach and insight demonstrated by Frank takes one beyond the over-used humdrum technology approaches often associated with knowledge publications. Frank has focused on a practical, human centered journey that elegantly addresses real life, day to day business requirements in a savvy and holistic manner."

-- Frederick Vail, Head, Intellectual Capital Development, E&P, Saudi Aramco

"Mastering Organizational Knowledge Flow is one of the few books I know about knowledge management really worth reading. In an economy increasingly based on knowledge and people, no responsible executive can afford to ignore it."

-- Beat Knechtli, Chief Knowledge Officer, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Zurich/Switzerland

"Frank Leistner knows that the widespread circulation of knowledge among people is the only important aspect of knowledge management. This book is particularly useful for anyone faced with facilitating flows of complex technical knowledge in a global organization. Leistner writes about these topics not in the abstract, but as a very effective practitioner."

-- Thomas H. Davenport, President's Distinguished Professor of IT and Management, Babson College

"Frank Leistner provides a very savvy guide here to the perplexities and possibilities of knowledge flow. He explains practically what he and his colleagues at SAS have learned about sharing, applying, and generating dynamic knowledge. His rich experiences create a map for the rest of us to the creation of significant value for our organizations."

-- T.J. Elliott, Chief Learning Officer, Vice President, Strategic Workforce Solutions, ETS