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The Company Super Brain
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Knowledge Management is an IT issue that has received serious debate over the last eight years. There are publications like the Knowledge Management Today, Knowledge Management World, and Knowledge Management News. Enter knowledge management in google advanced search and you will get over 345 million results. The issue has received so much debate and media coverage of late that the very mention of this issue puts editors to sleep. But the issue is still real and still important. This is the story suggestion on the issue of knowledge management that was sent out as a digitally enhanced email on behalf of PCIS. The personalized email below was distributed to the PCIS' Media List, with a particular emphasis on IT publications. Two weeks after the story suggestion was distributed, the graphic immediately below was emailed to the list and a notice was attached letting journalists know they could use the image in the story if they liked it. To see the ComputerWorld Canada article that resulted from The Company Super Brain campaign click here.
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-----Original Story Suggestion Message----- From: pcis [mailto:scott@pcis.com] Sent: Tuesday, August 25, 2003 4:27 PM To: editor@publication.ca Dear Editor, This story suggestion should interest your readers for three reasons:
The Company Super Brain
A Vancouver company is preventing corporations from losing valuable intellectual assets by using technology to create the company super brain.
The computer is often compared to the human brain. Its ability to process, analyze, and retrieve data is remarkably similar to the way the human brain functions. Vaclav Vincalek, IT visionary and president of Pacific Coast Information Systems (PCIS) is taking this analogy one step further to help organizations create a company super brain to capitalize on their untapped intellectual assets and prevent brain cell loss.
Connecting Individual Brainpower with Good Business Practices
The brain, the spinal cord and peripheral nerves make a complex, integrated information processing and control system that enables us to walk and chew gum at the same time. PCIS is connecting the individual brainpower of each employee by implementing good business practices with technology. They call it building the company super brain. Vincalek says the super brain manages the process in which companies produce value from their intellectual and knowledge-based assets. Knowledge is the ultimate competitive advantage for the modern firm. Techniques or systems that produce knowledge growth and are able to distribute knowledge are key to the success of today's companies. Examples of How the Company Super Brain Works
A simple example explains the utility of the company super brain. A company designs a new product and provides marketing information to its sales force. As the sales person for Western Canada contacts potential customers, he/she will develop knowledge about which sales techniques work best for their region. If this employee leaves without passing this knowledge on – the company has lost valuable information that, technically, it paid to develop. However, if the company has a system in place that enables this knowledge to be captured, it can then pass it on to new employees and the rest of its sales force.
Now apply this concept to brain factories like biotechnology companies. For the biotech, if its researchers are wired to the company’s super brain, regardless of which country, lab or hospital they work at, they can ‘pool’ their knowledge and gain access to each other's clinical data. Other brain factories like publishing houses, market research firms or software companies gain similar advantages when implementing a company super brain.
A great example of a collective brain is the Linux operating system. Linux was created by a Finnish programmer, who made the software’s source code available to the world and invited others to add to it. Thousands of developers around the world began working to enhance Linux, and the operating system grew rapidly. Now Linux is in a position to challenge Microsoft’s dominance in this area. This example shows the power of electronically connecting people to a common cause.
How Do You Build a Company Super Brain? To build a company super brain you need to first examine what your employees do and what the company’s business objectives are. Then your company needs smart technology like collaboration tools to assist with community building and information sharing. Collaboration tools assist knowledge exploration. Some of these tools include easy to access databases, communication/email systems, web technologies, e-learning, and search engines.
How does one use technology to connect one’s company and aren’t we already connected with email, Internet, and office networks? While it is true most companies use some of the tools above, it is also true that companies don’t make the most of their existing technology. In some cases, technology is actually the cause of brain cell loss. Information gets lost when employees leave because no one can find it on the system.
What Does the Super Brain Do?
The company super brain captures knowledge and adds value to it. To do this requires educating your employees on the creation, sharing, and use of knowledge. Producing value from knowledge assets involves employees sharing information with each other and between departments. Fortunately, today’s knowledge worker is almost completely immersed in a computing environment, which creates an opportunity to conveniently facilitate information sharing.
One of the technique PCIS employs to encourage information exchanges is to create password-protected project ‘rooms’ on the Internet. A room is a space on the Internet where employees go to draft documents, check work schedules and do research. Those working on the project post all their work on the site. Now anyone in the company can easily access this information from any location. If an employee leaves, their work remains posted. If another team, at a different location, is working on a similar project, it can now easily access research already conducted. The project room is connected to the company’s email program and enables workers to be immediately notified when information is updated. If a doctor, participating in a clinical trial, discovers a technique that improves how a drug is administered, she could quickly pass this information to everyone involved in the project.
The right combination of applications can significantly improve productivity, process efficiencies, and workflow. It creates enhanced knowledge capital and strengthens teamwork across boundaries leading to increased employee satisfaction.
Why Should Companies Create a Super Brain?
A company super brain is needed because of factors common to today’s workplace. These factors include: high staff turnaround, downsizing, costs, competition, globalization, and increasing value of knowledge products. High staff turnaround and downsizing have lead to loss of knowledge. They have also created a need for better training methods. The super brain encourages employees to collect information and provide documentation. This is then used when training new staff. Plus you have to consider the cost of brain cells lost. How much does it cost an organization when it loses the acquired job knowledge of its employees when they leave? How much does it cost not to be able to answer customer questions quickly? Today’s marketplace is increasingly competitive andthe pace of innovation is rapid. The value of knowledge has increased but the time available to experience and acquire it has diminished.
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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scott Henderson dHz Media t.+1.403.921.2001 e. scott.henderson@dhzmedia.ca | ||
