Two broad trends emerge. Firstly the relative importance of knowledge across each functions remains the same. Research and development continues to be the top knowledge dependent function and human resources and finance are the two lowest areas of importance. Currently ranked as number five in the knowledge stakes, it is set to overtake sales and IT and become a close number three to customer service by the end of the decade. Though the overall ranking remains broadly the same, the dependence on knowledge shows divergent increases in different functions in the next three years.
Finance shows the smallest forecast increase.
Marketing shows by far the steepest increase in its need for knowledge in the near future. But to increase the use of knowledge means installing more formal processes which can break through the inertia and barriers between people, groups and whole corporate cultures. Sixty-seven per cent already make some knowledge available to other parts of the business, but taking knowledge outside the organisation is a much bigger step to take. Attitudes to formal systems that may boost the productivity of business knowledge are changing. So the future looks explosive for knowledge management in Europe.