Knowledge is power

Business is more knowledge-intensive than ever and analysts forecast that by 2000, some 80% of all jobs in developed economies will be knowledge-based.

Anderson Consulting associate partner, Tor Mesoy, says that knowledge is becoming the business currency of the next millennium and can be leveraged to achieve business success if you know where and how to find it.

The drivers behind this new business currency, according to Carla John, consultant at Knowledge Architects, are. "Accelerated globalisation, emphasis on innovation, increasing complexity of projects, a more competitive marketplace and aggressive growth."

Dataware VP for Europe, Asia and Africa, Jim Tuck, also cites increased competition, faster production cycle times, employee turnover, more demanding customers and new infrastructure as adding further fuel to the fire.

Most industry specialists explain knowledge management (KM) - the use of intellectual capital to corporate advantage - by using the analogy of a chorus of altos and sopranos all singing in tune. But delve a little deeper and you discover that everybody has a different theory, with very few singing from the same song sheet. According to John Lawson, GM of Software Futures Business Engineering, this confusion is the result of organisations climbing on the KM bandwagon without really understanding what it is.

"I urge users to be very careful when considering a KM implementation. Make sure the company you are dealing with is truly a KM provider and not just slapping a few products together and calling it a KM solution," says Lawson.

KM is far more than just a technology solution, says Gary Swale, director at Knowledge Architects. "Technology is the enabler, but not the solution. KM is also a culture thing. Don't underestimate the need for technology, but without the right culture and processes, the solution is worthless."

Explaining the culture aspect of KM, Lawson says organisations have two distinct types of knowledge, tacit and explicit. "The latter is that which is written down in documents, on the Internet or intranets." He adds that tacit knowledge is that which is inside employees' heads. "It is the information that helps them do their jobs better."

The goal is to change this tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge and put it into a format that is easily accessible to all employees. This is where the culture issue comes in: How do you get employees who are used to keeping their methods close to the chest to suddenly share and bare all?

Incentives, says Knowledge Architects' John. "The reason people keep things to themselves is because they are worried that by sharing they will lose their competitive advantage inside the company." An example is two employees vying for the same position where neither wants to share his information, because it might put the other at an advantage.

"The solution is to remove the reasons for keeping information close to the chest," says John. She warns that it is a long-term process, but it can be achieved. "Start with your recruiting programme. When hiring, target the type of person that is likely to be a knowledge sharer. Companies should also initiate specific incentives for knowledge sharing. Make it important in performance reviews. Promote teamwork throughout the organisation. Another action is to create informal networks to get people together and provide them with a platform to share information."

When explaining the technology part of the process, Dataware's Tuck says that no single technology fills all the criteria required for a KM system as there are many different technologies that play a role.

Intranets form the ideal environment for sharing information that is dynamic and richly linked. However, Tuck says, the point is soon reached where so much information exists on the intranet that no one knows where anything is and cannot quickly find information. "This refutes the whole purpose of KM, which is making information easily and quickly accessible. The intranet should therefore be very tightly managed."

Other KM-enabling technologies are document management systems, information retrieval engines, GroupWare and workflow systems, push technologies and agents, help-desk applications, brainstorming applications, and data warehouse and data mining tools.

That is why there is no single technical solution for KM, adds John. "Each company is different. Some might need a data warehouse and help-desk application, others would need push-technologies and a workflow system."

The correct selection of KM-enabling technologies will allow an organisation to meet its ultimate knowledge management goal, which says Software Futures' Lawson, is: "Technology and people together enabling a company to create business processes which will add value to its customers."

It is not as easy as it sounds, however. There are many roadblocks that can stand in the way of a successful adoption of KM. Lawson highlights some: "The first is lack of commitment from top management. Although KM is a process that should not be implemented from the top-down, the existence of a KM champion is very important. Also people might not be willing to share their knowledge because of politics or attitude. That is where incentives work well. Another reason is that many companies do not know what they should know, which makes them unaware of the need for a KM solution."

Security is also an issue that has to be dealt with. "Companies must remember that what makes them competitive should remain their secret," says Lawson. "You cannot share everything. There has to be a balance. The solution is different levels of access. The board of directors will obviously need to know different things and have access to different information than the company's customers. For example, the recipe for Coca-Cola is not available on the company's intranet for all to see. It is a secret which gives Coca-Cola its edge."

Knowledge Architects' Swale concludes with this advice for companies wanting to implement a KM solution. "Take it slowly. Build on what you have. If you believe that intellectual capital is a key corporate asset, you need to initiate a learning culture with systems that tie into that. But break it down into smaller components in order to show some successes early in the process."