Some clusters have many ties to many others, while other clusters have only a few ties. Poor connections between clusters result in very long path lengths throughout the greater network. In such a network it is easy to access those in your cluster but not those in other clusters. This often results in distant clusters not having access to information and knowledge that is available in the organization. Often the knowledge you need is in clusters other than your own.
Networks have a horizon beyond which it is difficult to see what is happening.
Beyond three steps, you are blind to what is happening in the rest of the network. In a network of very long path lengths between clusters, your ability to find the knowledge or information you need is constrained. If the knowledge that you seek is not within your network horizon, then you assume it is not available and you reinvent it or pay for it on the outside. The natural response in many organizations is to throw technology at the problem. A very poor, yet quite common, solution is to mine the knowledge from employees, codify it, and store it in a knowledge database.