Knowledge Management or Corporate Amnesia?
More than 70 percent of businesses suffering a server failure without backup go bankrupt within two years. Of course, it’s not the loss of equipment, but rather the loss of critical information and knowledge housed on the server that leads to the failure.
When key employees leave a company, the organization can face similar hardships. The employee may have been the driving force for innovation, a well of experience on which everyone depended, or the customer database in effect,
Despite these risks, many businesses continue to play Russian roulette with their knowledge assets (people, experience, ideas, documents, et al)—the intellectual capital that comprises the corporate “brain.”
Knowledge Management to the rescue
Forward thinking companies use Knowledge Management beyond simple server backups and mentoring programs. They manage their knowledge assets to create new efficiencies, competitive advantages, and plans for growth.
Knowledge Management addresses both the content of documents and the method by which the documents are produced. It plans the flow of communication between parties, and it encourages timely collaboration and the development of employee knowledge. Some of the other assets addressed in a Knowledge Management plan are:
- Customer information
- Best practices
- Market & technology trends
- Patents & trademarks
- Employee information
- Innovations
- Competitor information
- Competencies (skill sets)
- Industry knowledge
- Business processes
- Documents
Besides “memory retention,” what can do Knowledge Management do for you?
A well-designed and supported Knowledge Management system can provide Herculean benefits for your company. Good Knowledge Management helps share information between employees and departments and reduces redundant work. New employees train faster and more completely, and when an employee leaves, the company’s knowledge assets stay in place and remain secure.
Given the obvious importance of development, management and continuous improvement of a Knowledge Management system, ask yourself these questions to determine where you are on the continuum:
- In what areas of your organization is knowledge being created?
- In what areas is knowledge being systematically shared?
- In what areas is collaboration happening?
- How is employees’ knowledge being developed?
- In what ways do the above systems work?
- In what ways do they breakdown or fall short?
With heightening complexity, competition and security dangers in today’s business world, forgetting about Knowledge Management may well lead to forgetting about business viability in the not-too-distant future.
Tags: Business Process Management, Collaboration, Document Management, Knowledge Management
