Your Business: It’s PEOPLE!
Throughout my long and fascinating business career, it’s become a shop-worn organizational truism that “people are our most important asset.” Sure, that makes those of us hearing it — who (needless to say) are ourselves people — feel good. But most companies have never fully acted as if they took this cliché too seriously. Who […]
The Power of Purpose
In my recent study of corporate purpose for The Conference Board (TCB), I conclude that, “Purpose is a key element in the corporate narrative—the story a company continually tells to its various constituencies [i.e., stakeholders]. It is, in short, why the company exists. While different organizations have varying ideas of what constitutes Purpose, The Conference […]
Introducing Knowledge Resources Management (KRM)
In November 2021 I had the honor and pleasure of addressing the annual KM World conference — a group I had not spoken with in more than two decades. The first part of my talk focused on the ROI of knowledge, which I explore at great length in my latest book The Value of Knowledge […]
The Hierarchy of Intention
I’ve been working with a client on the issue of increasing engagement and motivation among knowledge workers. In so doing, I’ve been reconsidering intention — what motivates us, as individuals, to do things — and how does that translate to how we behave in groups and organizations? The masons and the cathedral I love the parable of […]
Knowledge: To Have and Have Not
The value of knowledge was in the news again this week. Not my book by that name — but (even better) the thing itself. The world’s knowledge haves and have-nots A heroic and near-miraculous push has been made to get Covid vaccines designed, produced, and delivered within one year of the realization that we were in […]
The Speed of Knowledge
When I speak with student groups, which I do as often as possible, I count it as an extra-successful engagement when I’m asked a question I haven’t thought of — and even more so if it’s one for which I need to really think through my answer. The other evening I Zoomed with the students […]
The Year the Earth Stood Still
“Citizens of earth, we come in peace” Any fan of 1950s sci-fi movies will recognize these immortal words as coming from the alien invader in the pioneering 1951 film The Day the Earth Stood Still. Spoken in perfect English by a well-mannered, handsome alien, these words have become used to the point of cliché in […]
Competitiveness and Innovation
Adaptive Resilience
At the beginning of the global pandemic, I recommended that organizations undertake value pivots. I’m gratified to see how many industries are now doing this — with varying levels of success, but, too often, as a matter of survival. Here’s a summary of how various industries are pivoting toward new value models: COMPANY OR SECTOR PRE-PANDEMIC VALUE MODEL […]
“Knowledge IS the Business”
I had some fun in my newest book exploring the relationship between the phenomenal world — the “real world” of people, things, and events — and the epistemic world — the symbolic world that represents those things virtually. Our virtual world Surrounded as we are by technologies — the internet itself, and soon virtual and augmented […]
The Value of Knowledge – released 20 July 2020
And now, a word from our sponsor. WARNING: unabashed self-promotion dead ahead: Do you want to expand your organization’s “cognitive perimeter”? Decrease your “knowledge-value gaps”? Build an “epistemic wrapper” around your core product? Understand the “value vectors” driving your competitive future? Manage your enterprise “cage of doves”? You may understandably not have these initiatives on […]
Predictive Metrics — A Live Case Example
In speaking with people about the KVC framework, I have come to realize that some people may have misinterpreted it to mean that all data leads inexorably to the production of value. That is regrettably not the case! What the model says is that in order to produce value, the data has to be used […]
Building Predictive Metrics
I recently addressed a community of technology CFOs and CEOs on one of my favorite subjects — metrics, how they work, and how they sometimes don’t. They had some great comments and questions. I thought some of you may be facing similar challenges, so I’ll summarize here. Metrics are essential Metrics are the foundation of […]