New Business Model:

Business Enablers

Knowledge

What Your Firm Knows to Create Value

Humorous Quotes

"Never let formal education get in the way of your learning." – Mark Twain ... More

Knowledge Defined

Knowledge is a set of understandings used by people to make decisions or take actions that are important to the company.

As opposed to "information", knowledge is defined by its use and its relevance to work. It should be linked to the building blocks of how the organization creates value, especially unique know-how and capabilities.¹

Zen Proverbs, Sayings, and Quotes

When an ordinary man gains knowledge, he is a sage; when a sage gains understanding, he is an ordinary man... More

Balanced Organization: 5 Basic Elements

Corporate Capabilities (Water):

• Effective creativity, idea and knowledge management systems are established... More

Knowledge as the Source of Business Value

In the new economy, the knowledge component of products and services has increased dramatically in importance and has become the dominant component of customer value. The shift to knowledge as the primary source of value, makes the new economy led by those who manage knowledge effectively – who create find, and combine knowledge into new products and services faster than their competitors.

"Knowledge includes all the valuable concepts and vital know-how that shape a business to be wanted and needed by customers. Companies that are fast to market and demonstrated an ability to move with speed and sustain speed view time and knowledge as assets that are real money in the bank."⁴

Knowledge communities organized around the principles of entrepreneurship have the best chance at success.

Explicit and Tacit Knowledge

All knowledge isn't the same. There is explicit knowledge – the kind that can be easily written down (for example, patents, formulas, or an engineering schematic). The explicit knowledge can create competitive advantage, but its half-life is increasingly brief, as it can be replicated easily by others.

Tacit knowledge, or implicit knowledge, is far less tangible and is deeply embedded into an organization's operating practices. It is often called 'organizational culture'. "Tacit knowledge includes relationships, norms, values, and standard operating procedures. Because tacit knowledge is much harder to detail, copy, and distribute, it can be a sustainable source of competitive advantage... What increasingly differentiates success and failure is how well you locate, leverage, and blend available explicit knowledge with internally generated tacit knowledge".³

Memorization Problems: Solved!

By: Memory Improvement Techniques

Have you ever had problems in remembering names, numbers, grocery items needed, and other little details such as the location where you placed your car keys this morning? The truth is, we all have our moments of forgetting little bits of information that matters at the exact moment we need them.

Memorization techniques boil down to two basic things? These are ways on how you focus your attention and create a meaning in correspondence to the information or object you store in your memory. With memory techniques, you encourage your mind to be creative while utilizing your innate memory skills... More

Excerpts from the The Art of War, Sun Tzu, app. 500 BC

• Knowing: the ability to get hard information... More

 Case in Point  GE

With Work-Out as part of its DNA, General Electric (GE) has become one of the most innovative, profitable, and admired companies on earth. At its core, Work-Out is a very simple concept based on the premise that those closest to the work know it best. When the ideas of those people, irrespective of their functions and job titles, are solicited and turned immediately into action, an unstoppable wave of creativity, energy, and productivity is unleashed throughout the organization. At GE, Work-Out "Town Meetings" gave the corporation access to an unlimited resource of imagination and energy of its talented employees.

Confucius about Knowledge and Learning

I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.

Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance.

They must often change who would be constant in happiness or wisdom... More

Bibliography:

1. ^{"The Centerless Corporation", Bruce A.Pasternack and Albert. J. Viscio}

2. "Smart Business", Dr. Jim Botkin

3. Relentless Growth, Christopher Meyer

4. "It's not the BIG and eats the SMALL... it's the FAST that eats the SLOW", Jason Jennings and Laurence Haughton

5. "Productivity Improvement in the Service Sector," Mah Lok Abdullah, APO Newsletter