Knowledge access is only the beginning
Effective management of knowledge requires hybrid solutions of people & technology
Sharing & using knowledge are often unnatural acts
Ten Principles of Knowledge Management
Knowledge management never ends
Knowledge management is expensive (but so is stupidity!)
Knowledge management is highly political
Knowledge management means improving knowledge work processes
Knowledge management requires knowledge managers
Knowledge management requires a knowledge contract
Knowledge management benefits more from maps than models, more from markets than from
hierarchies
Introduction
Many companies
are beginning to feel that the knowledge of their employees is their most
valuable asset. They may be right, but few firms have actually begun to actively manage their
knowledge assets on a broad scale. Knowledge management has thus far been addressed at
either a philosophical or a technological level, with little pragmatic discussion on how
knowledge can be managed and used more effectively on a daily basis. At this early stage of
knowledge management in business, the most appropriate form of dialogue is not detailed
tactics, but rather high-level principles. When an organization decides what principles it agrees
upon with respect to knowledge management, it can then create detailed approaches and plans
based upon the principles.
For the past two
years I have been working with organizations in the area of knowledge
management. Some of them have been working on the topic for years, but only recently
realized that they were managing knowledge. More frequently, the topic of knowledge
management has only recently emerged in these organizations. But there are enough lessons so
that we can begin to articulate and debate some principles and rules of thumb.
Ten principles
of knowledge management are listed below. I'm sure that there are more that
could be stated, but the decimal system has a strong appeal. With each principle some
implications and issues are also discussed. Where I am aware of firms who have wrestled with
the principle and taken action on it, their experience is described.
1. Knowledge
management is expensive ( but so is stupidity!).
Knowledge is an asset, but its effective management requires investment of other assets. There
are many particular knowledge management activities requiring investment of money or labor,
including the following:
While few firms
have calculated the cost of knowledge management, there are some quantified
estimates. Robert Buckman of Buckman Laboratories estimates that his firm spends 7% of its
revenues on knowledge management. McKinsey and Company has long had an objective of
spending 10% of its revenues on developing and managing intellectual capital.
But while knowledge
management is expensive, the obvious retort is that not managing
knowledge is even more so. What is the cost of ignorance and stupidity? How much does it
cost an organization to forget what key employees know, to not be able to answer customer
questions quickly or at all, or to make poor decisions based on faulty knowledge? Just as
organizations attempting to determine the value of quality determined the cost of poor quality
products and services, if we wish to assess the worth of knowledge we can try to measure the
cost of not knowing. Of course, such an assessment could lead to political problems, but that is
another principle.
1. McKinsey Research
