What is knowledge management? ¿Es viable que algo como el conocimiento que inevitablemente pertenece a las persons pueda gestionarse en las instituciones?
It is better to go in parts. When we speak of knowledge management in institutions, we refer to a procedure or situation that enables the transfer of knowledge or experiences from a person or group of people to other people belonging to it. organization or company.
Y aquí está el principal problema, ya be que se trate de personas y transmitir o compartir algo que no es fácil de transmitir o saber a quién transmitir: information and skills.
What is knowledge management?
Knowledge management is the procedure through which an organization facilitates the transmission of information and skills to its workers in a systematic and efficient manner. It is essential to explain that information and skills do not necessarily have to come exclusively from the company, but can or generally be generated outside of it.
This last nuance is very important. In general, most companies identify Administrative knowledge only with the information and internal skills of the company, which we call Business intelligence. From this dynamic, almost all efforts are aimed at channeling the information and skills that an organization already has, focusing on the effectiveness of internal communication processes through the implementation of systems such as CRM, ERP and a CMI
It has always been this way because it has always been much easier to control the volumes of internal information than external information that is outside the organization and that is more difficult to find, search, choose and organize.
Internal knowledge management vs External knowledge management
This inbred vision can be bad for a business. Imagine an airplane whose pilots only had information related to the fuel level, the weight of the load, the activation of the engines, landing gear and other systems of the airplane.
In the case of a business that focuses only on internal knowledge management disaster may be equivalent. Basically because the rest of the agents in your market (consumers, competitors, suppliers, etc…) are acting outside the organization and if we do not know what these agents do or want, we will end up selling less and less. We can't forget that companies live off sales and sales take place outside the organization.
Fortunately, almost all companies have commercial networks and suppliers that transmit this knowledge to them and even now technological and competitive intelligence systems that provide them with the information they need to detect what is happening in their market.
Internal knowledge management enables us to know how we are, if we need more cash flow, more raw materials or place a certain product on the third level of the supermarket shelf on Wednesdays because more is sold etc. but external knowledge management He will tell us what is happening in our market where we are truly generating money and the possibilities and threats that are being formed.
The components of knowledge management
It is clear that people are at the center of knowledge management. But we are specifically interested in your skills and your information. These two components are essential when considering the knowledge management procedure in an organization.
- information It can be collected, processed and stored by the company's information systems, facilitating the creation of a dashboard for the environment and a balanced dashboard for management. If these systems are well designed, we will obtain regular and systematic information about what happens inside and outside the organization and we will be able to make decisions quickly.
- The abilities On the other hand, they are more complicated to transmit because it entails the acquisition of new knowledge for the receiver, which takes more time.
No one knows that imparting and retaining information is easier than learning a skill like learning to drive, because it takes hours of practice. Competencies are related to training plans and it is a very important effort to identify the people who have the most valuable skills inside and outside the organization so that they can share their knowledge. That is why, they are usually outsourced outside the company.
Why is knowledge management important?
Knowledge management involves going far beyond a simple computer system or a training plan. It is essential to promote innovative and efficient business structure. If knowledge circulates and is transmitted correctly in the organization, it can only grow. Relevant skills and information are quickly transmitted among workers and thus increase the opportunity to generate new knowledge that leads to new applications, process or product improvements and new alternatives for doing business to achieve new possibilities.
Do not forget this knowledge is the only asset that develops over time and it does not wear out but it can disappear with people, if it is not shared. I know of cases in which the departure of a worker meant a very important loss of competitiveness for a company because it is the only one with very specific knowledge. That is why it is vital to manage it, both in large institutions and in small institutions. On another occasion, I will talk about how to manage knowledge in your organization.
This is why information systems take a more relevant role in the operational and commercial management of companies.
