Knowledge Management : Innovation of Innovation

Knowledge innovation or “the creation, evolution, exchange and application of new ideas into marketable goods and services for the excellence of an enterprise, the vitality of a nation’s economy and the edvancement of society as-a-whole”.
The evolution is outlined according to the elements of analysis, the relationship with the customer, and the overall management style. First, the earlier years of the computer industry wew data-intensive; there was a focus on automation. Second, the primary industry has been product-oriented. The third, the focus changed in how organizations are managed.



The elements of analysis in the 1950’s until the 1970s was data, whereas in the next evolution between 1970’s and 1990’s were information and the final evolution is knowledge content. Amidon in her book “Innovation Strategy for the Knowledge Economy : The Ken Awakening” argued that “there has been a (re) birth of the principles and practices related to education, development, and the learning. With the advancement of technology and the increasing complexities of the marketplace, executives began to realize that learning no longer could be isolated to the classroom”.

Managers, businessman and entrepreuneur need to focus on knowledge as the evolution from data and information. This provides a way to describe the content that needs to be managed. At least there are five major forces influencing the worldwide marketplace that must be understood in order to capitalize on the business opportunities afforded by the global economi :
• Shift from information to knowledge
• Shift from bureaucracies to Networks
• Shift from Training/Development to Learning
• Shift from Local/National to Transnational
• Shift from Competitive to Collaborative Strategy

Shift from information to knowledge
In the information technology profession, there has been a natural evolution of computing. Data are considered as elements of analysis. Information is data with context. Knowledge is information with meaning. Wisdom is knowledge plus insight. The new source of wealth is knowledge, not labor, land, or financial capital. It is the intangible, intellectual assets that must be managed. This shift needs a new lens through which the world is viewed.

Shift from Bureaucracies to Networks
The traditional hierarchical designs that served the industrial era are not flexible enough to harness the full intellectual capability of an organization. Strategic Business Units have given way to the creation and effective utilization of Strategic Business Networks, whereas progressive organizations establish Strategic Business Systems with multiple networks, interdependent units and dual communications.
Another new lens from which the organization must be viewed is the shift from hierarchical authority to a system based on new ideas. The Strategic Business Network now includes partners, suppliers, and stakeholders, including customers and sometimes competitors.

Shift from Training/Development to Learning
Learning is considered as the integral process for progress. It is an investment rather than perceived expense to the organization. The knowledge that one creates and applies is more important than the knowledge one accumulates. New techniques, such as collaborative teams and action research, can be incorporated easily into the culture.

Shift from Local/National to Transnational
Enterprises can no longer rely on purely regional approaches to maintain their profitable growth. More and more, companies and industries of all types are needing to globalize in order to maximize their profits. Every national strategy must be created within an international context, thus transnational. During the post-war era, there is a need to create the equivalent for “the world trade of ideas”.

Shift from Competitive to Collaborative Strategy
With a collaborative approach, rather than competitive, symbiosis creates a larger pie to share or more pies to divide. Alliances of every dimensions are the natural order of the day in realization that go-it-alone strategies are almost suboptimal.

(Amidon, D. (1997). Innovation Strategy for the Knowledge Economy : The Ken Awakening, Butterworth-Heinemann.)