Tune out the 'noise' though and the truth is that knowledge management can offer real benefits to organisations that are willing to think about their approach to knowledge.
Are you really getting the most from what you know? Is the know-how of your employees making a difference?
It's certainly true that the vast majority of businesses today are failing to leverage their knowledge - their know-how is substantially under-utilised. They have knowledge about their people, processes, markets, customers, and competition but they struggle to leverage this collective knowledge successfully. Many businesses recognise this but are unable to isolate or articulate the problem. That's where knowledge management (KM) can help - it provides a framework to describe your own 'knowledge space' and help you make sense of it. Once you begin to understand it you can begin to improve on it.
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"Knowledge is Power"
Francis Bacon |
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Knowledge is Power
Knowledge has become the primary source of competitive advantage. Increasingly companies will be measured by what they know, how they apply what they know and how they learn new things. Most companies today already 'know' this but they struggle to make what they know make a difference. Questions such as, 'How can we use what we know to be better than the competition?' What else do we need to know in order to compete more effectively?
This is where we can help. We work with organisations to develop and implement successful knowledge strategies. We support this with processes and tools to support knowledge workers and deliver new insights into the knowledge map underlying your business.
Managing Knowledge
In practice 'managing' knowledge is tough - the word management implies a level of command and control which is usually elusive when it comes to knowledge. Add to this the varying definitions of what knowledge actually is and you begin to see the problems in getting started in KM.
Knowledge is power, but in an organisational context it is frequently either misused or not used at all. Knowledge mostly resides in people's heads and not just those that work for you but also those who work with you - your customers, suppliers, partners and even competitors. This makes it an extremely difficult thing to manage but the investment in time and effort pays dividends once you begin to see how knowledge contributes to your business.
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| Apples & Oranges Knowledge Simulation |
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