Knowledge Management: A Value-Chain Approach Albert Simard presented to Interdepartmental Knowledge Management Forum October 27, 2004
May 16, 2015
Knowledge Management:A Value-Chain Approach
Albert Simardpresented to
Interdepartmental Knowledge Management Forum
October 27, 2004
An opening thought…
An era in which the key economic resource is knowledge is startlingly different from an era in which the key resources were capital, raw materials, land, and labor.
James Martin CYBERCORP (1996)
OUTLINE
• Knowledge Assets
• Knowledge Value
• Knowledge Management
Knowledge is different from industrial resources
Knowledge Attributes
• Total knowledge is increasing; half-life is decreasing• Knowledge can be in more than one place at one time• Knowledge may be permanent or time sensitive• Knowledge can be used without being consumed• Selling does not reduce supply nor ability to sell again• Buyers only purchase knowledge once• Once disseminated, knowledge cannot be recalled
Thomas Stewart (1997)
Knowledge Costs
• Production cost is independent of the number of users• Reproduction is controlled by users, not producers• Production cost greatly exceeds reproduction cost• Costs accumulate at the front-end of production• The more intangible, the greater the cost discrepancy• Inputs and outputs for creative work are uncorrelated
Thomas Stewart (1997)
Explicit Knowledge
• Knowledge that has been formally expressed and transferred in a tangible form; intellectual property. – databases, statistics, collections– books, publications, reports, documents, correspondence– photographs, diagrams, illustrations– computer code, expert systems, decision-support systems– presentations, speeches, lectures– recorded experiences, stories– materials for education, teaching, and training– laws, regulations, procedures, rules, policies– embedded into products
Canadian Forest Service Explicit Knowledge Assets
0255075100125150175
# o
f Ass
ets
Percent
Number
531 assets; 211 responses
Tacit Knowledge
• Intangible personal knowledge gained through experience and self-learning. It is influenced by beliefs, perspectives, and values. – awareness
– skills
– mental models
– expertise
– judgement
– wisdom
– corporate memoryThe Thinker - Rodin
Intellectual Capital
“Intellectual capital is intellectual material … that can be put to use to create wealth.”
Thomas Stewart Intellectual Capital (1997)
Intellectual capital includes both tangible, material (explicit knowledge) and intangible knowledge in the minds of individuals (tacit knowledge)
OUTLINE
• Knowledge Assets
• Knowledge value
• Knowledge Management
If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.
Knowledge Value
• Value is very difficult to measure
• Value is extracted when knowledge is used
• Sharing increases the value of knowledge
• Value increases with abundance
• Buyer cannot judge value in advance
• Value can be added by filtering knowledge
• Value is not well related to acquisition cost
Thomas Stewart (1997)
Knowledge Value Chains
Flow of knowledge through a sequence of processes in which it’s value is increased at each stage.– Creation– Use– Management
• Preservation• Sharing• Integration
Knowledge Creation Value Chain
Information Management
Decision-making
Knowledge Management
Data Management
Acquisition
Data WisdomInformation KnowledgeInputs
sensing facts meaning understanding judgement
Knowledge creation is a precursor to everything else
Creating Knowledgeis not Enough
• Bell Labs: lasers
• Xerox: graphical user interface, object-oriented programming, laser printer, Ethernet
• IBM, DEC: mainframe/mini computers
• CERN: World-Wide Web
• Encyclopaedia Britannica: synthesizing knowledge
Knowledge Use Value Chain
Individual OpinionCompiled TargetedRecommend
Reporter Analyst AdvocateAuthor Marketer
promotepublish represent influence agenda
The value of knowledge is realized only when it is used for something
Plant Hardiness
Zones
Knowledge for Canadians
(climate + elevation)
Knowledge for PractitionersFire Monitoring, Mapping, and Modeling System
OUTLINE
• Knowledge Value
• Knowledge Assets
• Knowledge Management
KM adds value by linking creation and use
Knowledge Management Value Chain
Network Manager Executive
Senior ManagerCustodian
Preservation ManagementSharing Integration
interface interoperability organizationavailability
Higher-level KM goals generally have decreasing ranges of applicability
Knowledge Management:Linking Past, Present, & Future
Past Present Future
Capture Archive
Share Integrate
Learn Adapt
Infrastructure Content
Processes People
Knowledge Management:A Definition
Developing organizational capacity and processes to capture, preserve, share, and integrate data, information, and knowledge to support organizational goals, learning, and adaptation.
Knowledge Preservation Value Chain
Capture MaintainOrganize RetrieveStore
Librarian Systems ManagerCodifier Provider
accessinventory map capacity continuity
Preservation is the foundation of knowledge management
Briefing Note Database
Organizing Knowledge Assets
• Epistemology• Cognitive approaches• Automated methods • Classification systems• Thesauri• Interdisciplinary issues• Linguistic issues• Metadata• Knowledge map
Library of Alexandria – artist’s concept
Storing Knowledge Assets
• Information Technology infrastructure
• Systems for archiving and managing content
• Interface for entry and administration
• Data warehouse, distributed databases
• Information repository, records management
• Knowledge repository, knowledge map
• Digital libraries, traditional libraries
Retrieving Knowledge Assets
• Access to content
• Browser interface
• Search engine
• Extraction tools
• Manipulation tools
• Assembly tools
• Retrieval system
Relativity - Escher
Knowledge Sharing Value Chain
conversation letters
speaking publishing
hoarding networking synergy
Individual GroupsColleagues Community
personal synergydialogue evolution
The value of a network is proportional to the square of the number of users
Sharing Knowledge: Methods
• Conversations, discussions, dialogue • Advice, briefings, recommendations• Mentoring, teaching, examples• Questions & answers, knowledge extraction• Presentations, lectures, speeches, stories• Documents, books, manuals, instructions• Education, training, demonstration• Meetings, workshops, conferences, forums• Networks, communities of practice
Sharing Knowledge: Technology
• Talking (real, virtual)• E-mail (individuals, list servers, distribution lists)• Chat rooms, forums, discussion groups• Communities of interest, informal networks• Groupware (teams, working groups)• Conferences, workshops, knowledge fairs• Data bases, information bases, knowledge bases• Digital libraries (repositories, search, retrieval)• Information & knowledge markets
Knowledge Integration Value Chain
Coordinator
AnalystCreator Synthesizer
Isolated IntegratedOrganized Whole
structureelement relationships system
The whole is more than the sum of it’s parts
Soils of Canada
Land Cover
Natural Resources Canada Ressources naturelles Canada
Canadian Forest Service Service canadien
des forêts
Climate Change
B) climate at 1.5 X COB) climate at 1.5 X CO22
A) present climateA) present climate
0 - 10%
11 - 20%
21 - 30%
31 - 40%
41 - 50%
51 - 60%
61 - 70%
71 - 80%
81 - 90%
91 - 100%
X location of black spruce sites
Distribution of Black Spruce
“Products are physical manifestations of knowledge, and their worth largely, if not entirely, depends on the value of the knowledge they embody.”
Dorothy Leonard
Wellsprings of Knowledge (1995)
A final thought….