Though Peetz claims he is not by nature a technologist, he has needed a good understanding of technology in order to oversee the creation of the necessary technology infrastructure. You need to have a pretty healthy B.S. meter because you're going to be told a lot of outlandish lies about what technology can and can't do. Scott agrees and points out that the relationships between the CKO, CIO and the head of HR are very closely tied to the ultimate success of the KM project. Working with the CIO on setting up an information-sharing network like Lotus Notes can assist in capturing explicit knowledge. Tacit knowledge, however, is much harder to tap, says Scott.
Tacit knowledge is always harder to get at, but it is the key.
This sentiment is also echoed by Ellen Knapp, vice chairman, CKO and global CIO of PricewaterhouseCoopers in New York City. The crucial requisite has to be the support of the management team as a whole. They must believe, as passionately as the chief knowledge officer does, that we are in the transition from the industrial to the knowledge era and that our attention to the subject of knowledge and knowledge management metrics is going to be as critical to our business as financial metrics have been in this century. Though the CEO may regard knowledge management as a worthy pursuit for the company, the effort is bound to fail unless the board is convinced of its value as well. Scott recounts the story of one CKO who is now an ex-CKO because the CEO was not able to sustain support.