Workers in knowledge-based companies are like cats, different to the dogs of the industrial age. "Like cats, knowledge workers are not subservient, they cannot be controlled, they have to be enticed," says James van der Westhuizen, MD of Gauteng-based KnowHouse, a company which helps organisations to manage their intangible assets more effectively.
He explains that in the industrial age, companies owned the means of production. The workers were entirely dependent on the organisation, like dogs. They were in some ways powerless, replaceable and, in the minds of the industrialists, just a production factor employed for their hands, not their minds.
"Today, however, knowledge-based companies and manufacturing companies are beginning to understand that their workers are the means of production. Therefore the ownership of production is in the hands of the knowledge workers.
"Management has to realise they will never own most of the assets used to deliver value to their stakeholders. A company`s staff and customers are like cats since they cannot be owned; one can only negotiate for their attention."
He says whereas dogs undergo dog training schools to become obedient and adapt, with cats the whole situation is different. "The whole concept of managing cats is contradictory. One has to look at cats from their position and consider what cats enjoy.
"The only way to manage cats is through their environment. One has to create an ecology for cats and make them want to stay."
Van der Westhuizen maintains that most businesses in South Africa do not understand the importance of managing the ecology. "If you want smart people to work for you, there is nothing you can do to manage them directly; like cats, one has to manage the ecology.
"The manager of a knowledge-based organisation is no longer a manager, he is an ecologist and is there to build relationships. He needs the mindset and skills to manage within completely new parameters."
Van der Westhuizen believes there will never be an African renaissance unless we stop exporting commodities and importing intellectual capital. This order should be reversed to some degree. One should consider Italy as an example. Italy imports gold, but proportionally adds more value to gold than SA does through its mining activities by transforming it into jewellery (a knowledge-based operation), and then exporting it, he says.
"Knowledge is an infinite resource, and it`s free. A company`s customers have all the company needs to know in order to be successful in its business.
"Companies just need to remove the blockages to the inflow of knowledge from their staff, customers, community and their own corporate history, and act upon this."
Van der Westhuizen advises that a knowledge-focused strategy can help companies go beyond the time-honoured law of diminishing returns, by leveraging knowledge as a resource to be used. "Companies can then go into the realm of increasing returns on investment and not diminishing returns. Knowledge is not depletable; it increases in value with usage, which leads to greater value.
"Knowledge management has only one goal: to increase an organisation`s capacity to act."
Van der Westhuizen adds that KnowHouse tries to be a container of ideas, concepts and methodologies which are open, and which allow people to take a different view of their organisation. "We aim to create knowledge in South Africa."
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