Knowledge management

Stewart has now moved onto knowledge management (km). He's using a case study from a copier machine company that had a knowledge competition to answer questions.
The second placed person is the most interesting, a single mum that sat next to the winner, a rebel. An example of tacit knowledge, the most difficult problem for KM is how you manage tacit knowledge, he says. The work of km has gine into explicit knowledge and not people with tacit knowledge. This has created databases and information centres that no one goes to.
Managing explicit knowledge leaves you unprepared for a world of change, as you are looking at the information of the past.
Challenge for the next five years is the latest slide, the challenges are:
1 speed - "the world never slows down, your email fills, and markets are now 24/7. As things speed up you are more likely to make a mistake". The business challenges of speed is really interesting, he says and is inferring this is a role for information professionals
2 Customer power - "every insustry I know is being taken over by its customers, how do you manage that?" "Customers know more and mopre, the price game of poker has gone away. French cement company LeFarge has a great KM enviroment using councils, but the backbone is the customer visit that involves interviews, sales people are amazed that price is never mentioned."
3 Low cost competition - the threat of low price start ups or just good enough challengers
4 decision making under uncertainty and management without supervision: management has been about controlling risk, but there are risks that you cannot control, you cannot put odds on it, he says. "Most of what we know about management doesn't help us, increasingly this is the world we live in." Tech means we are more powerful individuals at work.
He has gone back to what creates the knowledge and then you can use to support your organisation, his opening theme.