100 Great Business Ideas: From Leading Companies Around the World (100 Great Ideas)

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100 GREAT BUSINESS IDEAS • 227


  • Defi ne what knowledge assets exist—especially information
    or skills that are diffi cult or expensive to replace.

  • Locate the assets: who keeps or “owns” them.

  • Classify them, and assess how they relate to other assets. This
    will reveal opportunities in other parts of the organization.
    -^ Increase knowledge in key areas. This can be done in three ways:
    it can be bought, rented (eg by hiring consultants), or developed
    through training.
    -^ Maintain knowledge. Knowledge gaps make an organization
    more vulnerable to competition. Lost expertise and experience
    following “downsizing,” and the erosion of traditional employee
    loyalty, highlight the urgent need to capture, codify, and store
    people’s expertise and tacit knowledge.
    -^ Protect knowledge. Explicit knowledge, such as copyright or
    information codifi ed in handbooks, systems, or procedures,
    can be legally protected. Tacit knowledge, information retained
    by individuals, including learning, experience, observation,
    deduction, and informally acquired knowledge, can only enjoy
    limited legal protection through, for example, non-compete
    clauses. It is necessary to ensure that valuable tacit knowledge is
    recorded and passed on.
    -^ Establish information systems. An effi cient information
    management system will coordinate and control information,
    and help with planning. When developing a system, decide
    what information is needed to help improve decisions and
    achieve objectives.
    -^ Manage the fl ow of information. Understand how information
    fl ows, what it is used for, and the ways in which it can be applied.

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