A Compass for the Knowledge Economy Business: How-to Succeed in the New Knowledge Economy

Yet when we join these agents in societies- in certain very special ways- this leads to true in- telligence. Examples are news, information, ideas, opinions, advises, domain expertise, solutions, answers, humor, stories, and draft speeches. The size of the virtual intelligence varies in terms of size and content on theindividual at the helm.

In a very mechanistic struc- tured organization such as in the Armed Forces, formal rules and regulation as well as discipline will force members of the organiza- tion to contribute their knowledge. However, a different approach in the form of reward and a lot of coaxing and convincing have to be carried out to motivate staff members and other knowledge agents to contribute their precious knowledge to an organic organization.

In mechanistic organizations, di- rection can be deliberately decided and planned. In the organic case, direction evolves or emerges through trial and error learning. Direc- tion is also discovered rather than decided in an organic organiza- tion. As such, the virtual intelligence of a mechanistic organization tend to be bigger due to the proper planning and better resource allocation compared to a more ad hoc approach in the organic or- ganization.

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Virtual Intelligence tends to increase with rise of position and power in a hierarchy. Rather than looking negatively at the effects of promotion in propagating incompetence, a more positive approach is to ensure that who ever gets promoted will have a big virtual intelligence at his disposal to compensate for whatever shortcomings the person might have prior to his new appointment. The onus is on the management and all stake holders of the organization to ensure that a virtual intel- ligence knowledge management system is in place to support the leaders of the organization.

Rather than letting mediocrity prevail, it is of prime importance to ensure a culture of excellence and learning is the norm. Good and strong leadership is a key success factor here. Using a light bulb as a metaphor for talent and performance, if everyone contributes and performs well for the organization then each light bulb in the pyramid will shine brightly. The effect is a brightly lit Christmas tree as shown in Figure 3. Here, everyone wins regardless of his or her position in the hierarchy.

Mahathir Mohamed, appointed a newly elected State Assembly man for Sungai Panjang and previously a dentist to be the Chief Minister of the most developed state in Malaysia. Being a young man and a newcomer, he was catapulted to the highest political post in the state by virtue of having the cleanest record at that time amidst heavy politics. He was not prepared for the post that soon and certainly suffered from The Peter Principle.

As a Chief Mi- nister, Dr. Khir was expected to function as Menteri Besar minutes after his appointment. If given ample time, Dr. Khir would require a few years to fill-in the vacuum between his current competency and that expected of a Chief Minister of a developed state like Selangor. In cases like this, Virtual Intelli- gence can assist to reduce the learning curve drastically if it was put in place and important stake holders in Selangor are willing to con- tribute generously to Dr.

As such, KMS technology could be utilized to cap- ture, share and exploit the knowledge from Knowledge Agents as- sociated to the leader of the organizations. However, the driving val- ues for capturing and sharing knowledge may differ depending on the context. For some organization, the driving value is knowledge of cus- tomers.

What ever the emphasis, the common element at the core of these different approaches is knowledge as its most strategic asset. As such, knowledge leadership is taken very seriously and under- standing knowledge is the first step to managing it effectively. Verna Allee listed a dozen characteristics of knowledge, and some tools and approaches for making the most of the knowledge assets in a knowledge-based organization.

The characteristics are as fol- lows: Because knowledge is connected to everything else, you can not isolate the knowledge aspect of anything neatly. In the knowledge universe, you can not pay attention to just one factor. The self that knowledge or- ganizes around is organizational or group identity and pur- pose.

Knowledge wants to happen, just as life wants to happen. Both want to happen as commu- nity. Nothing illustrates this principle more than the Internet. Without a language to de- scribe our experience, we can not communicate what we know. Expanding organizational knowledge means that we must de- velop the languages we use to describe our work experience. It is tempting to try to tie up knowledge as codified knowledge-documents, patents, libraries, databases, and so forth.

Creating Value in the Knowledge Economy

But too much rigidity and formality regarding knowledge lead to the stultification of creativity. Highly adaptable systems look sloppy. The survival rate of diverse, decentralized systems is higher. That means we can waste resources and energy try- ing to control knowledge too tightly. Knowledge is always changing. For the moment, the best approach to managing it is one that keeps things moving along while keeping options open.

Eventually, some know- ledge is lost or dies, just as things in nature. Unlearning and letting go of old ways of thinking, even retiring whole blocks of knowledge, contribute to the vitality and evolution of know- ledge. Knowledge is a social process.

That means no one person can take responsibility for collective knowledge. If knowledge is truly self-organizing, the most important way to advance it is to re- move the barriers to self-organization. In a supportive envi- ronment, knowledge will take care of itself. There is no single leverage point or best practice to advance knowledge.

It must be supported at multiple levels and in a variety of ways. For example, concern about the ownership of knowledge leads to acquiring codified knowledge that is protected by copy- rights and patents. Organizations that are serious about know- ledge often create formal knowledge-management functions to fa- cilitate knowledge creation and sharing. A knowledge leader sets the course and attends to the knowledge creation process. A con- cern about knowledge sharing emphasizes communication flow and documentation. A focus on knowledge competencies leads to seek- ing more effective ways to create, adapt, and apply knowledge.

As on a sea voyage, managing knowledge requires appropri- ate tools. Verna Allee further suggests the following tools: A north star represents the purpose, sense of identity, and core principles that guide an organization. Know- ledge self-organizes around organizational purpose. Without a north star for knowledge, it is impossible to focus on what is needed.

An organizational compass consists of guiding principles and strategy. Best-practice companies in knowledge provide a way to expand knowledge by taking an integrated, multimodal systems approach. Knowledge is embodied in people. It is impossible to talk about knowledge without addressing the way people work together, learn together, and grow in knowledge indi- vidually and collectively.

Companies that are serious about knowledge, foster an environment and culture that support continuous learning. Knowledge-based organizations seek guides, maps, and pathways for building knowledge across multiple performance levels. They understand the processes that support the creation, acquisition, sharing, and renewal of knowledge. Companies that value knowledge want to know how and where to access it.

There must be vessels or vehicles to support knowledge exploration. One of the most popular technologies for knowledge sharing is a corporate intranet and extranet. There is unlimited potential for the uses of intranets in- cluding access to static information and online resources, as well as interactive tools for learning, collaborating, etc.

The users are specific clients who want an immediate tie to the company, the information it has, and their work with the company. There is unlimited potential for the uses of extranets including access to static information like advertising, newsletters, client specific work product, and online resources. There are also applications for interactive tools for collaborating and etc. There must be ways to assess whether you are on course. Measurements help gauge and manage knowledge assets, and support continuous improve- ment.

The technology components should be designed to do the following: In this case, the simplest architecture for a knowledge management system was provided by Applehans et al. According to Applehans et al. Those who produce and those who use knowledge that will be the basis for action. The flow of data, information, and knowledge im- portant to the success of the business. The technical infrastructure that enables the cap- ture, storage, and delivery of content to those who need it when they need it.

Many other researchers also include Process as a fourth ele- ment. Another promising knowledge management system architec- ture is by Borghoff and Pareschi of Xerox. They utilized a ge- neral framework for information technology to support organizational knowledge management through a number of technological com- ponents which they referred to as the Knowledge Management Ar- chitecture. The Knowledge Management Architecture comprises of four components: Using knowledge, competencies and interest maps to distribute documents to people.

Knowledge Navigation, Mapping, and Simulation. Awareness services, capture and access, Shared workspace, Knowledge work process support, Experience capture. Search, Heteroge- neous document repository, access, integration, and manage- ment, Directory and links, Publishing and documentation sup- port.

Creating Value in the Knowledge Economy | Elite Agent

The four technological components are to answer questions such as: Interestingly, another knowledge management architecture was provided by Amrit Tiwana In his book, The Knowledge Management Toolkit, Tiwana notes that many of the technologies that support knowledge management have been around for some time and such organizations should be seeking to leverage on such as the following: Examples include the following: Examples of these include project management tools and multimedia technology. Examples include telephone, fax ma- chine, Internet conferencing systems, video conferencing tools and electronic chat rooms.

They include search engines, intelligent decision support systems, case based reasoning systems, and con- textual information retrieval systems that support filtering, ed- iting, searching and organizing knowledge. Since Virtual In- telligence relies on many intelligent software agents, this tech- nology is a key element for a successful KMS for VI. This layer connects people to the knowledge management system to create, expedite, use, retrieve, and share knowledge. It is the part of the system that users sees and works with. For many companies, this interface layer is the home page the user accesses over the company intranet.

This is the layer that au- thenticates valid users, provides security, and provides back- ups and disaster recovery. This layer con- tains the tools for content personalization, searching, index- ing, etc. This layer contains skill directories, yellow pages, collaborative work tools, video conferencing hardware and software, digital whiteboards, electronic forums, etc. Middleware provides the connectivity between old and new data format. This layer consists of the operational databases, discussion database, Web-forum archives, legacy data, docu- ment archives, and other databases that represent the foun- dation of the knowledge management system.

In- terestingly, Amrit Tiwana also provides a ten-step road map on how to implement a knowledge management system in his book, The Knowledge Management Toolkit which can be a good guide to implement a KMS for VI. The ten steps are: Finding the optimum match between rapidly evolving infor- mation needs and a fast changing technology is not an easy task. Where should we start? Should we build on what is already in place? What can the business afford and what will be lost if we do not adopt the latest technology?

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What strategic role will knowledge play? None of these are easy ques- tions. In contrast to Tiwana, Denham , lists a few guidelines on how to assess the knowledge needs, how to classify the know- ledge types, how to model the evolution of knowledge within an or- ganization or group, and how to select a technology that fits the industry or local culture.

Technology choice is not all about functionality; it is about risk, strategic positioning, user buy-in, vendor commitment, migra- tion paths. Finding the right combination of technology for the infor- mation and knowledge management is an arduous task. A series of broad steps is recommended by Denham as follows: A proper documentation has to be made of the same. The answer is certainly, yes.

For example, Hirotaka Takeuchi wrote: This bias reinforces the view of the organization simply as a machine for information process ing. Only then can the organization be viewed as a living organism capable of creating continuous innovation in a self-organizing manner. The West has placed a strong emphasis on explicit knowledge and Japan on tacit knowledge. But the subjective and intuitive nature of tacit knowledge makes it difficult to process or transmit the acquired knowledge in any systematic or logical manner.

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For tacit knowledge to be commu- nicated and shared within the organization, it has to be converted into words or numbers that anyone can understand. It is precisely during the time this conversion takes place - that is, from tacit to explicit - that organizational knowledge is created. The reason why Western managers tend not to address the issue of organizational knowledge creation can be traced to the view of knowledge as nec- essarily explicit. John Baldoni is a popular leadership keynote speaker, executive coach and executive educator.

He is an internationally recognized thought leader, and the author of 13 great management books, which have been translated into 10 languages. He recently posted his […]. Popularity Popularity Featured Price: Low to High Price: High to Low Avg. Managing for Success in the Knowledge Economy Dec 01, Available for download now. Only 7 left in stock more on the way. A Compass for the Knowledge Economy Business: Provide feedback about this page. There's a problem loading this menu right now. Get fast, free shipping with Amazon Prime. Get to Know Us. English Choose a language for shopping.

Amazon Music Stream millions of songs. Amazon Advertising Find, attract, and engage customers. Amazon Drive Cloud storage from Amazon. Alexa Actionable Analytics for the Web. AmazonGlobal Ship Orders Internationally. Kuperholz gives a bigger-picture view, citing the example of how Government might be able to use data. Again, as it may apply to the real estate industry Kuperholz brings it back to derived value.

They have got to look at incentive structures that encourage certain types of behaviour, ultimately for the survival of the franchise or group. This is where other industries are headed — where buyers and sellers are brought together using the least amount of resources for a deal that feels right for everyone.

They do that through technology. Netflix — selling rental videos — [are] one of the early, case studies of targeted marketing. But if data is to create a more efficient marketplace it may mean that technology will replace jobs. They were sewing stuff by hand, when it could now be done by machine.