In the strategic sense, knowledge management means transforming personal knowledge into a corporate resource that can be widely shared throughout an organisation and appropriately applied. If this still sounds discouragingly abstract, consider the practical steps involved. Many will be immediately and reassuringly familiar to any IT manager. An effective information and communications infrastructure - groupware and other collaborative technologies, such as an intranet . Equally familiar are several of the characteristics of a knowledge management programme.
Companies tend to adopt two broad thrusts in applying knowledge management methods.
One is to share existing knowledge better - making implicit knowledge more explicit and putting in place mechanisms to move it more rapidly to where it is needed. The other aims to promote innovation, making the transition from ideas to commercialisation more effective. BP , by introducing virtual teamworking using videconferencing, has speeded up the solution of critical operation problems. Hoffman La Roche has reduced the cost and time to achieve regulatory approval for new drugs through its Right First Time programme. Skandia Assurance has grown revenues much faster than the industry average by developing new measures of intellectual capital and instructing managers to concentrate on increasing its value.