11.1.05
Africa: il 2005 anno del KM.
For sometime now many professionals have been pre-occupied with research on socio-economic, scientific and political fabrics of civilization, that they tend to overlook a concurrent knowledge management. There is no doubt that recent years have been experiencing quite a dramatic increase in knowledge.
Many are now asking, would we be able to control information explosion? The knowledge is promising provided we put in place new ways of organizing and managing it.
It is obvious that in this massive explosion of information not all information is knowledge, most of it is mainly junk. The thing is; do we have the capability to sieve value from junk? Can we control this phenomenon? Yes, how?. Through the 'continuum modelling process" (putting in place information systems/mechanisms right from the time we generate or create the information to the time the information losses value).
This type of information that is much talked about and which is gradually threatening to dominate the information age, "knowledge", referred to in the context of knowledge management, has recently been taken enthusiastically in many commercial sectors and it is also being taken very seriously in modern government circles and managers refer to it as knowledge economy. Knowledge has been described in two distinct forms; explicit knowledge that can be captured, conveyed and expressed in procedure manuals and it is easy to manage and tacit. This is the most valuable kind of information because it is knowledge in our heads, developed through experience, thinking, and observation. The challenge inherent in tacit knowledge is figuring out how to recognize, generate, share and manage it. Explicit knowledge consists of anything that can be documented, archived and codified often with the help of IT. Of course not all information/knowledge is valuable therefore it is necessary for every company to determine what information qualifies as intellectual and knowledge based assets. Generally intellectual and knowledge based assets fall into one of two categories; explicit or tacit.
So what does it mean to us in Botswana as a fast developing country? To understand this, let use a simple case scenario, think of a person going into any shop and buys or purchases a pair of shoes as a simplified example of a knowledge worker. The first thing that the buyer would need to do is to look for assistance from the shop assistant. The shop assistant as knowledge worker would then need to know certain conditions to complete the transaction of selling the customer a pair of shoes. The shop assistant might need to know the following; knowledge of customer care (how to provide a good service), knowledge of the customer's shoe size, knowledge of the available sizes and models of shoe, knowledge of the price of the shoes, knowledge of selling (how to persuade customers to buy] and knowledge of how to work the till.
Obviously there are many more things the shop assistant would need to know. A good shop assistant would also go to the extent of advising the buyer on the quality of the pair of shoes. Accurate advice may lead to a better choice for the buyer. If the shop assistant is willing to share his knowledge with his customers then the end result is that eventually they would be more rewards for most people hence everyone wins
Today value-based management makes us all think about creating value in everything we do at every level of our lives and at the same time we are living in an age where almost every one has the same information at the same time.
Therefore the advantage goes to those people who are able to take the right, accurate, authentic, reliable information from a pool of information junk and quickly put it to effective and profitable use. As we continue to witness this terrain of information explosions (where there is massive production of information after information), it is reasonable to assume that only those organizations that are able to quickly put that information into effective and profitable use would be able to rise above the competition and accomplish the objectives of change management. Companies diligently need to be on the look out for information overload. Quantity information rarely equals quality information. The secret of knowledge management is to identify and disseminate knowledge gems from a sea of information and quickly putting it into use.
As with other physical assets, the value of knowledge can erode over time. Since knowledge can get stale quickly, its content should be updated, amended and deleted. What's more, the relevance of knowledge at any given time changes, as do the skills of employees.
In this era of information technology, the computer technology has gradually taken over the role of documenting the decision processes and the communication workflow.
This now takes place almost electronically. With corporate strategy putting more emphasis on fast decision making and readily availabile information resources, the ability to scan valuable info from useless information is becoming a priority for this year and many more to come.
The main driver of change is definitely mainly technology embracing the management of information as a strategic resource. Technology in the form of e-mail, groupware, instant messaging and related technologies can help facilitate the disseminating of knowledge. This means that technology here is often used as a tool to facilitate the management of information. These recent changes that are sweeping across the rapidly changing business environment marketplaces are the basis of fierce competition for both local and external markets.
In order to uncover the most valuable market opportunities and ultimately to derive the most value from intellectual rather than physical assets, companies maintain that knowledge must be shared and serve as the fountain for collaboration. Finally, this year (2005) we can confidently postulate that; many organizations are increasingly going to become subjected to business strategic planning, which requires identification of new opportunities and converting them in reality. ¶ 08:39
Many are now asking, would we be able to control information explosion? The knowledge is promising provided we put in place new ways of organizing and managing it.
It is obvious that in this massive explosion of information not all information is knowledge, most of it is mainly junk. The thing is; do we have the capability to sieve value from junk? Can we control this phenomenon? Yes, how?. Through the 'continuum modelling process" (putting in place information systems/mechanisms right from the time we generate or create the information to the time the information losses value).
This type of information that is much talked about and which is gradually threatening to dominate the information age, "knowledge", referred to in the context of knowledge management, has recently been taken enthusiastically in many commercial sectors and it is also being taken very seriously in modern government circles and managers refer to it as knowledge economy. Knowledge has been described in two distinct forms; explicit knowledge that can be captured, conveyed and expressed in procedure manuals and it is easy to manage and tacit. This is the most valuable kind of information because it is knowledge in our heads, developed through experience, thinking, and observation. The challenge inherent in tacit knowledge is figuring out how to recognize, generate, share and manage it. Explicit knowledge consists of anything that can be documented, archived and codified often with the help of IT. Of course not all information/knowledge is valuable therefore it is necessary for every company to determine what information qualifies as intellectual and knowledge based assets. Generally intellectual and knowledge based assets fall into one of two categories; explicit or tacit.
So what does it mean to us in Botswana as a fast developing country? To understand this, let use a simple case scenario, think of a person going into any shop and buys or purchases a pair of shoes as a simplified example of a knowledge worker. The first thing that the buyer would need to do is to look for assistance from the shop assistant. The shop assistant as knowledge worker would then need to know certain conditions to complete the transaction of selling the customer a pair of shoes. The shop assistant might need to know the following; knowledge of customer care (how to provide a good service), knowledge of the customer's shoe size, knowledge of the available sizes and models of shoe, knowledge of the price of the shoes, knowledge of selling (how to persuade customers to buy] and knowledge of how to work the till.
Obviously there are many more things the shop assistant would need to know. A good shop assistant would also go to the extent of advising the buyer on the quality of the pair of shoes. Accurate advice may lead to a better choice for the buyer. If the shop assistant is willing to share his knowledge with his customers then the end result is that eventually they would be more rewards for most people hence everyone wins
Today value-based management makes us all think about creating value in everything we do at every level of our lives and at the same time we are living in an age where almost every one has the same information at the same time.
Therefore the advantage goes to those people who are able to take the right, accurate, authentic, reliable information from a pool of information junk and quickly put it to effective and profitable use. As we continue to witness this terrain of information explosions (where there is massive production of information after information), it is reasonable to assume that only those organizations that are able to quickly put that information into effective and profitable use would be able to rise above the competition and accomplish the objectives of change management. Companies diligently need to be on the look out for information overload. Quantity information rarely equals quality information. The secret of knowledge management is to identify and disseminate knowledge gems from a sea of information and quickly putting it into use.
As with other physical assets, the value of knowledge can erode over time. Since knowledge can get stale quickly, its content should be updated, amended and deleted. What's more, the relevance of knowledge at any given time changes, as do the skills of employees.
In this era of information technology, the computer technology has gradually taken over the role of documenting the decision processes and the communication workflow.
This now takes place almost electronically. With corporate strategy putting more emphasis on fast decision making and readily availabile information resources, the ability to scan valuable info from useless information is becoming a priority for this year and many more to come.
The main driver of change is definitely mainly technology embracing the management of information as a strategic resource. Technology in the form of e-mail, groupware, instant messaging and related technologies can help facilitate the disseminating of knowledge. This means that technology here is often used as a tool to facilitate the management of information. These recent changes that are sweeping across the rapidly changing business environment marketplaces are the basis of fierce competition for both local and external markets.
In order to uncover the most valuable market opportunities and ultimately to derive the most value from intellectual rather than physical assets, companies maintain that knowledge must be shared and serve as the fountain for collaboration. Finally, this year (2005) we can confidently postulate that; many organizations are increasingly going to become subjected to business strategic planning, which requires identification of new opportunities and converting them in reality. ¶ 08:39
