KNOWLEDGE FACTOR
KM Six Pack #1
THE K FACTOR
Brainwork is a fact of life for the 21st century enterprise
This is the first in a series of six articles introducing newly engaged employees and managers
to the basics of knowledge-based enterprise.
By Jerry Ash
The importance of
knowledge as a resource is
nothing new, particularly
when an industry relies
heavily on research and
innovation.
Yet, knowledge
management (KM) now has
the attention of a wide range
of business thought leaders as
never before. KM is not a fad
and it won’t disappear as long
as knowledge matters and it
matters now more than ever.
The stock values of
companies in the 21st century
predominately reflect
intellectual capital, not hard
assets. That is why stock
market values are far higher
than the material value of the
companies they represent.
Microsoft was once listed at 10
times its “real” value.
Knowledge, unlike a
physical resource such as oil,
is a renewable and limitless
asset. Resource poor regions
like Southeast Asia and India
are eagerly embracing the
Global Knowledge Economy
where the raw material
(knowledge) is cheap and the
payoff big.
The modern focus on
knowledge began over 50
years ago when Peter Drucker
first wrote of the knowledge
worker. He predicted
technology and a service
economy would change
everything; that organizations
and individuals would have
to change the way they
40 SMART PEOPLE
managed and worked. KM
is about that change. While
the knowledge resource
was vaguely recognized in
the Industrial Age, it was
not understood and very
little thought was given to
managing it. Management
focused on tangible assets
– money, inventory, property,
physical plant.
People showed up on the
liability side of the balance
sheet – costs, not assets. Many
companies discouraged
individual thought and
initiative by filling heads
with standardized training
and judging performance
against prescriptive job
descriptions that reflected “the
company way.” They managed
people like machines. It
was (sometimes still is) a
throwback to the Industrial
Age where management
theory held that people were
not hired for what they knew
but what they did.
On the other hand, if
people were expected to use
the considerable knowledge
they brought with them, there
were no specific processes or
support systems in place for
them to do so. On the human
side, people had to engage in
“workarounds” to do their
jobs better.
Unfortunately, people
did these workarounds in
secret and, therefore, believed
“knowledge is power.” They
hoarded personal knowledge
to build self-worth, improve
chances for advancement and
enhance job security. People
worked in relative isolation,
compounded by vertical
organizational charts that left
interdisciplinary collaboration
next to impossible in a
structure of disconnected
silos. As a result, most
knowledge was either buried,
of limited use, or lost when
people moved on to other
jobs or responsibilities. Vast
storehouses of knowledge
went untapped.
Early attempts at
knowledge management
failed to address these issues.
If managers saw the value
in human knowledge at all,
their instinct was to capture
it, codify it and brand it
as the firm’s “intellectual
property” (IP). Technology
vendors loved that strategy,
repackaged information
management software and
marketed it as “knowledge
management platforms.”
Companies invested heavily
in such software but it was not
workable.
The next five installments
of this series will provide
a quick summary of the
emerging standards of practice
in knowledge management.
Today, everyone is a
knowledge worker or manager
whether he or she knows it
or not; therefore, this series
is for you. Together, the six
articles are a KM primer that
will provide you the basics.
With them in hand, you can
take your next steps into the
Knowledge Age.