Take one of the most important resources in your company — your employees, their memories and their expertise — and harness it into a strong pool of readily accessible intellectual capital and you have a knowledge management system.
Along with wealth creation, knowledge management is currently a hot topic in the corporate world. Its potential has been extended and strengthened immeasurably by the Internet and revolutions in IT. To many, its implementation has been seen as a technological solution. Knowledge sharing, however, is more than that. It is very much a cutting edge management concept that flows from notions of the importance of having an abundance mentality.
People are the core of any knowledge strategy. Sharing of information is critical and seasoned managers know that sharing makes the pie bigger for everyone. Gone are the days when internal competition was so strong that information and excellence remained the best kept secret of the few who developed discrete concepts and ideas. Well, ideally, the idea is not to compete, but to collaborate; not to steal each other’s ideas, but to share them.
Knowledge management’s real foundations lie in commonsense — it is not rocket science, and it is not that new. But seasoned knowledge users know that a strong knowledge management system and professional staff save everyone precious time — and these enable them to provide a better and more efficient service. They know that knowledge grows when shared and used.
Employees don’t have to re-invent the wheel each time they draft a proposal or an advice or need information about a specific topic. While material produced has to be tailored and reworked to fit each job, a reliable framework is already there. This benefits the whole organisation and, because it increases turnaround time, is good for clients too.
And with rapid change in legislation in the financial services and superannuation sector, the knowledge manager, in conjunction with compliance officers, must be a key driver of change and facilitate revision of processes and procedures.
Cultural and organisational drivers and best practice dictate that many industry players should at least contemplate the systemisation of the keeping of its corporate knowledge. This is particularly important for companies selling ideas, information or advice.
While establishing a knowledge management team can easily draw on existing in-house skills and expertise, it is sometimes difficult to convince management of its bottom line value. In an environment where mergers and takeovers are common, conservation of knowledge is critical and a knowledge management system will guarantee a return on investment.
The knowledge manager is an invaluable team player who by necessity must span a broad range of company functions — consulting, managerial and organisational. The knowledge manager’s role is inextricably linked to a company’s product development strategy, compliance, education and training programs, as well as its technology, systems and people. They must have the ability to research issues in depth and to summarise them for use by all company departments.
Knowledge management is also a useful tool when assessing lessons learned and can be used to centrally record client feedback.
Cultural obstacles may arise when securing employee buy-in. The system will not flourish if employees either don’t contribute to the knowledge base or don’t access it.
Time dedicated to contribution to knowledge management and individual effort has to be factored into budgets and recognised. Senior management needs to get behind it and to champion it as one of the key drivers of a business.
— Marie Sullivan is the NSW Chair of Women in Super.
