Knowledge Workers

 As we move even further into the information age with technology advancing every year, an interesting truth about business emerges – increased dependence on people.

 While computing power can move information and data across the world faster than a click on a keyboard, people turn that information into good decisions. These people in turn depend on their intelligence and experience.

   Employees possess an important means of production – their knowledge. There have been many attempts to create knowledge through artificial intelligence and expert systems but they have not succeeded because computers cannot have hunches or instincts and they cannot learn from good and bad decisions.

 People create successful organizations not technology.

          Those who actually do a job know more about it than anyone else. Employees who actually interact with customers know them better than anyone else. This includes the CEO, upper executives or managers. Customer facing employees know what customers want and what they don’t want because they work with them everyday.

          Management must use the knowledge from employees and be constantly asking, “What can we learn from you?” What can you tell us about customers and what tools do you need to serve them better?  Many good customer service employees become less motivated when they feel managers do not want their input or do not put any value on it. Big mistake!

 While a lot of facts about a firm may be documented, much of its experiences reside in its employees’ heads. Very often a company’s competitive edge resides its knowledge workers. When the person having a critical piece of knowledge quits joining a competitor, that knowledge walks out the door. It has been well documented that the loss of a key employee can result in the departure of key clients and a significant loss of income. 

Workers, who accumulate specialized knowledge, will not be easily bound to one company. They will ultimately go where they can achieve the greatest satisfaction.

 Employees in depth skills, reputation, and experience often represent an edge that competitors will find hard to substitute.           

         The companies that will truly thrive are those that use their information technology assets to leverage their employee’s knowledge in ways that are immediately applicable. This could include satisfying the right customers in the right way at the right time.

 Unlike the assets of labor, capital, and land, knowledge is an infinite resource that can generate increasing returns through systematic use and application.   

         Through the sharing of knowledge a company can help its employees do their job better, faster, and more effectively. Knowledge can provide the perfect link between business strategy and technology investment.

           In many service industries, the ability to identify best practices and spread them across a dispersed network of operations or locations is a key driver of added value. 

 As business visionary Peter Drucker said

 “The ability to survive and thrive comes only form a firm’s ability to create, acquire, process, maintain, and retain old and new knowledge in the face of complexity, uncertainty, and rapid change.