Knowledge Management: Key to success and speed

A sustainable competitive advantage of an organisation success comes from its intangibles like Brand, Culture, Knowledge etc. Because its these intangibles that cannot be copied easily by competition.

The global economy is moving towards knowledge economy. The consumption and production of intellectual capital is the new order. The organisations that do this are far more profitable than their counterparts in traditional industries. Its the knowledge that adds the extra margin to the bottom-line, that added competitive advantage which cannot be imitated. All knowledge centric companies enjoy much higher margins compared to traditional manufacturing and services industries.

A knowledge centric company prioritises managing its internal knowledge as virtuous cycle whereby the knowledge is produced, then shared, consumed and produced further more. The new knowledge generated is what flows into every area of its value chain (like strategy, products, operations,..). The organisation that produces knowledge faster than its competition invariably remains ahead.

Moving towards knowledge centric organisation requires a focus on knowledge management. Its important to distinguish knowledge management from information or database or business process management. Knowledge management is about meeting the high value knowledge needs of the organization which impacts the success of the organisation. Following are key considerations to bear in mind: 

• Take feedback on organisational high value knowledge needs from people in senior and key positions.
• External knowledge sources are equally important as internal knowledge when producing new knowledge.
• Don't loose focus on tacit knowledge like experience, insights and network.
• Quality is important than Quantity. Otherwise it will become a search for a needle in haystack. 
• Its also about behavior and culture than just the IT platform. The change management and top management support are key to success.

It was in 15th century that Sir Francis Bacon mentioned "Knowledge is Power" and its more so true today in the knowledge centric economy.