In an economy where the only certainty is uncertainty, the one sure source of lasting competitive advantage is knowledge. Yet, few managers understand the true nature of the knowledge-creating company — let alone know how to manage it.
According to this 1991 article by Japanese organizational theorist Ikujiro Nonaka, the problem is that most Western managers defi ne knowledge — and what companies must do to exploit it — too narrowly. They believe that the only useful knowledge is “hard” data. And they see the company as a kind of machine for information processing.
Nonaka shows us another way to think about knowledge and its role in business organizations. He uses vivid examples from highly successful Japanese companies such as Honda, Canon, NEC, and Sharp. Managers at these companies recognize that creating new knowledge is not simply a matter of mechanistically processing objective information.
Rather, it depends on tapping the tacit and often highly subjective insights, intuitions, and ideals of employees. The tools for making use of such knowledge are often “soft” — such as slogans, metaphors, and symbols -– but they are indispensable for continuous innovation.
The reasons Japanese companies are especially adept at this holistic kind of knowledge creation are complex.
But the key lesson for managers is quite simple: Much as manufacturers worldwide have learned from Japanese manufacturing techniques, companies that want to compete on the knowledge playing fi eld must also learn from Japanese techniques of knowledge creation.
Adopted from Ikujiro Nonaka (Harvard Business Review, Jul 2007)
Possibly Related:
- No related posts
1 response so far ↓
1 Sean Tay // Oct 24, 2007 at 7:54 am
Quoting from above :
“Nonaka shows us another way to think about knowledge and its role in business organizations. He uses vivid examples from highly successful Japanese companies such as Honda, Canon, NEC, and Sharp. Managers at these companies recognize that creating new knowledge is not simply a matter of mechanistically processing objective information.
Rather, it depends on tapping the tacit and often highly subjective insights, intuitions, and ideals of employees. The tools for making use of such knowledge are often “soft” — such as slogans, metaphors, and symbols -– but they are indispensable for continuous innovation.
The reasons Japanese companies are especially adept at this holistic kind of knowledge creation are complex.”
My perspective on knowledge :
In today’s internet age, information is cheap. Knowledge is cheap even if it is made up of the world’s most valuable pieces of information embodied in some fancy concept or theory…………if it is not able to inspire, transform and move people into effective action and produce significant beneficial results.
Knowledge is cheap, but inspiration is priceless.
More than being a Knowledge-Creating company, all organisation must strive to develop its people to continually transform itself in the way the business should grow, products change, services change, mindset change, skill sets change, policies change, etc.
Transformation is the mandate for today’s growth in any organisation. To do that, creating knowledge is just the first step. It is the ideas that those information provide and inspires that forms the element for true success.
Transformation is all change, but not all change is transformational.
Sean
http://www.seantay.com
Leave a Comment