Likewise product development requires knowledge of consumer requirements, new science, new technology, marketing etc. Corporations are organising their businesses to be focused on creating customer value. Staff functions are being reduced as are management structures. There is a need to replace the informal knowledge management of the staff function with formal methods in customer aligned business processes. Competitive pressures are reducing the size of the workforce which holds this knowledge.
Knowledge takes time to experience and acquire.
Employees have less and less time for this. There are trends for employees to retire earlier and for increasing mobility, leading to loss of knowledge. There is a need to manage increasing complexity as small operating companies a re trans-national sourcing operations. A change in strategic direction may result in the loss of knowledge in a specific area. A subsequent reversal in policy may then lead to a renewed requirement for this knowledge, but the employees with that knowledge may no longer be there.